Northwestern-Illinois Clash Turned Into a Winter Wonderland

The Land of Lincoln Trophy game took on a snowy flavor.

Snow blanketed Illinois's campus ahead of the Fighting Illini's game against Northwestern. | WCIA-TV via Kaitlyn Jesmonth on X

Saturday was a snowy day across the Midwest, and college football fans tuning in expecting flakes weren't disappointed. No. 1 Ohio State downed No. 15 Michigan 27–9 amid flurries, while Minnesota topped Wisconsin 17–7 in equally wintry conditions.

Northwestern's annual rivalry showdown with Illinois was something else entirely. The Champaign-Urbana, Ill., area took a direct hit from the system annoying much of the Great Lakes region, and suffered from high winds as well.

The result: shot after shot after shot of Memorial Stadium coated in white. The snow altered both teams' game strategies and made for incredible photography and videography even before the game started.

Here was the Wildcats' view of the powder.

https://t.co/zhfjs6oSmt pic.twitter.com/K0ycd4thsm

— Northwestern Football (@NUFBFamily) November 29, 2025

Jeremy Werner of 247Sports shared this view an hour before kickoff.

#illini and Northwestern play football here in an hour. pic.twitter.com/Ajfiddfxmx

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) November 29, 2025

Sideline views of the contest weren't much clearer.

My brother-in-law is at Illinois-Northwestern and they are gonna have a REAL snow game pic.twitter.com/Jdtiqr81Qt

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) November 30, 2025

The fall did not stop Fighting Illini linebacker James Kreutz from warming up sans shirt.

James Kreutz is warming up shirtless pic.twitter.com/BNT89lor8u

— Glenn Kinley (@glenn_kinley) November 29, 2025

Kaitlyn Jesmonth of WCIA-TV shared the view from the station's camera mounted on the stadium, which underlined the conditions affecting the entire area.

One hour before the #Illinois vs #Northwestern kickoff and this is the view from the WCIA Memorial Stadium camera ❄️

Snow is expected to changeover to a rain/snow mix throughout the game. Go #Illini!🙌 pic.twitter.com/XnR24Whh2c

— Kaitlyn Jesmonth (@wxkaitlynj) November 29, 2025

Clearly, Champaign-Urbana residents' irritant was television viewers' gain.

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