Northwestern vs. Pittsburgh
Northwestern and Pittsburgh have 7 meetings on file, the first in 1949; Northwestern leads the series 4–3 in the games on file. Over the last 7 meetings it’s Northwestern 4–3. Share
- Northwestern wins
- 4
- Pittsburgh wins
- 3
- Ties
- 0
- Earliest on file
- 1949
- Longest streak
- 2 Northwestern
- Current streak
- 1 Northwestern
- Last 10 meetings
- Northwestern 4–3
- Most recent
- 2016
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1940s | 0–1 | ||||||||||
| 1950s | 2–1 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 1–1 | ||||||||||
| 2010s | 1–0 |
- Average margin
- 6.6 points; 6 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Northwestern
- 2–2 Northwestern’s record at home
- At Pittsburgh
- 1–1 Pittsburgh’s record at home
- Neutral sites
- 1–0 Northwestern first
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Northwestern’s biggest win2016: Northwestern 31, Pittsburgh 24by 7 points
- Pittsburgh’s biggest win1949: Pittsburgh 16, Northwestern 7by 9 points
- Upset1949: Pittsburgh 16, Northwestern 7Pittsburgh had a 32% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Biggest days
| Justin Jackson Northwestern | 32 carries, 224 yards, 3 TD | 2016 Rushing |
Named most valuable
| Northwestern RB Justin Jackson | 2016 |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on). Most valuable: as the games’ Wikipedia articles name them (CC BY-SA).
From the newspapers
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
Every game
| Dec 28, 2016 | Northwestern 31, 22Pittsburgh 24 | Yankee Stadium | Pinstripe Bowl | |
| Sep 29, 1973 | Pittsburgh 21, Northwestern 14 | at Northwestern | ||
| Sep 30, 1972 | Northwestern 27, Pittsburgh 22 | at Pittsburgh | ||
| Oct 23, 1954 | Pittsburgh 14, Northwestern 7 | at Pittsburgh | ||
| Oct 24, 1953 | Northwestern 27, 18Pittsburgh 21 | at Northwestern | ||
| Oct 21, 1950 | 20Northwestern 28, Pittsburgh 23 | at Northwestern | ||
| Oct 1, 1949 | Pittsburgh 16, Northwestern 7 | at Northwestern |
Every game is listed as played on the field.

