Nebraska vs. Northwestern prediction: Nebraska favored to win men's college basketball matchup [1/17/2026]

Northwestern will take on the favored Nebraska in men's college basketball action at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Saturday, commencing at 4:00 PM ET.

Based on updated simulation results, Dimers' advanced college basketball model projects Nebraska as the most likely winner of the Nebraska vs. Northwestern game.

This article offers a closer look at Saturday's matchup, including an expanded look at the predicted score, best bets and picks.

Nebraska vs. Northwestern prediction: Who will win and cover?

Using innovative machine learning and statistical analysis, we have simulated the result of Saturday's NCAA basketball matchup between Nebraska and Northwestern 10,000 times as part of our men's college basketball predictions coverage.

Our independent predictive model gives Nebraska a 69% chance of beating Northwestern. Our predicted final score has Nebraska winning 76-71.

According to our model, Northwestern (+5.5) has a 51% chance of covering the spread, while the 148.5-point over/under has a 52% chance of staying under.

Nebraska vs. Northwestern odds

We have sourced the best men's college basketball odds in America for this game, which are listed here:

All odds are correct at the time of publication and are subject to change.

Nebraska vs. Northwestern picks and best bet

After matching our probabilities against the best available odds, we can reveal our picks for each of the major markets. Plus, find our best bet for the game below: