Northwestern still has playoff hopes as the Red Raiders get set for their season finale at home against Midland Lutheran.
Coach Orv Otten’s team will finish third in the Great Plains Conference with a win but will still need help to qualify for the N-A-I-A playoffs. The top 16 in the national poll make the playoffs and Northwestern is currently 21st. He says there are four sets of teams above them that’re going to be playing each other, so he says they know four teams will lose. He says they don’t know if the four will drop far enough to impact his team.
Otten hopes the strength of the G-PAC will help their chances. Northwestern is currently 7-3 on the season. Two of the loses were to the number two and number four teams in the nation.
Otten says none of it matters if they don’t get a victory this weekend and he says they can’t control what’s ahead of them, so they have to take care of business Saturday. Midland Lutheran would also claim third place with a win.