The moment Pat Fitzgerald let Northwestern know they won the Big Ten West will give you chills

Head coach Pat Fitzgerald better be ecstatic. That’s because his alma mater Northwestern Wildcats just won the Big Ten West for the first time.

It wasn’t pretty, but the Northwestern Wildcats got it done. They went into a hostile environment to take on the division rival Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City and came out victorious, 14-10.

Not only did Northwestern beat a huge rival of theirs on the road, but the Wildcats just did something they have never done before. They just won the Big Ten West for the first time.

Head coach Pat Fitzgerald let his team know that the Purdue Boilermakers lost, thus clinching the division crown outright. Naturally, Fitzgerald and his team erupted in celebration of this huge accomplishment for Northwestern football.

Northwestern was picked to finish third in its own division this year. With the Wisconsin Badgers struggling throughout the season, it was only a matter of time for a team like Northwestern to take advantage of the Badgers’ on-field woes.

The Wildcats have now won 10-straight games over their Big Ten West rivals and 14 of 15 games versus Big Ten opponents. That’s a great recipe to winning a division title. Though the Big Ten East is by far and away the better of the two divisions, let’s not rain on Northwestern’s parade.

They have been a fringe top-25 program for a good bit of Fitzgerald’s time in Evanston. Northwestern has a rough football history as a Big Ten doormat. However, the program was briefly good during Fitzgerald’s playing days for them. He was most notably the best player on the 1995 Big Ten Championship team coached by Gary Barnett. This Northwestern team went to the Rose Bowl that season.

Flash forward 23 years later and Northwestern has a slim chance of getting back to Pasadena. Of course, they would probably need to beat the Michigan Wolverines or whatever team comes out of the Big Ten East in the conference championship game in Indianapolis in early December.

A loss for the Wildcats, even in the title bout, could have the College Football Playoff Selection Committee give that New Year’s Six Bowl to a team like Ohio State. As an improbable Big Ten Champion, it would only be fitting that Northwestern gets back to the Rose Bowl.

Northwestern still has division games against the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the arch rival Illinois Fighting Illini left on the slate. Perhaps the Wildcats can do the impossible and avenge their early season loss to Michigan on a neutral-site for the Big Ten Championship? Regardless, congratulations Northwestern and Coach Fitzgerald on a season of perseverance and divisional dominance.