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.

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

Every meeting by decade, colored by the winner
’0’1’2’3’4’5’6’7’8’9W–L
1940s0–⁠1
1950s2–⁠1
1970s1–⁠1
2010s1–⁠0
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

  1. Northwestern’s biggest win2016: Northwestern 31, Pittsburgh 24by 7 points
  2. Pittsburgh’s biggest win1949: Pittsburgh 16, Northwestern 7by 9 points
  3. Upset1949: Pittsburgh 16, Northwestern 7Pittsburgh had a 32% chance, by our ratings before kickoff

Both programs through the years

End-of-season Elo ratings of Northwestern and Pittsburgh, 1949 on13001500170019501960197019801990200020102020

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 Northwestern32 carries, 224 yards, 3 TD2016 Rushing

Named most valuable

Northwestern RB Justin Jackson2016

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

  • The Evening star's story of the 1953 game: Two Long Passes By Thomas Set Up I'd in Last Period

    1953 · Evening star, District of Columbia, Oct 25, 1953

  • The Evening star's story of the 1954 game: Pitt Beats Northwestern, A-7, With Drive in Last 80 Seconds

    1954 · Evening star, Oct 24, 1954

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, 2016Northwestern 31, 22Pittsburgh 24Yankee StadiumPinstripe Bowl
Sep 29, 1973Pittsburgh 21, Northwestern 14at Northwestern
Sep 30, 1972Northwestern 27, Pittsburgh 22at Pittsburgh
Oct 23, 1954Pittsburgh 14, Northwestern 7at Pittsburgh
Oct 24, 1953Northwestern 27, 18Pittsburgh 21at Northwestern
Oct 21, 195020Northwestern 28, Pittsburgh 23at Northwestern
Oct 1, 1949Pittsburgh 16, Northwestern 7at Northwestern

Every game is listed as played on the field.