EVANSTON-The national spotlight will be shining in Evanston on Saturday.

Northwestern is playing No. 3 Notre Dame at Ryan Field, the first time a Top 5 team has visited since Ohio State in 2006.

The game is not only sold out; the Northwestern ticket office didn’t even have to put single-game tickets on sale to pack the house. This is the first time the Irish have played at NU since 1976, and Wildcat fans are excited for a chance to extend the school’s two-game winning streak against Notre Dame (1995 and 2014).

ESPN will broadcast the game nationally at 6:15 p.m. Central time, with Will McDonough and Todd Blackledge on the call. The press box at Ryan Field had one open seat remaining as of Monday morning, according to an NU media official.

So the game is obviously big for fans and media. But for this Northwestern team, the game means...well, nothing.

Northwestern’s three team goals are etched into glass panels at the new Walter Athletics Center: Win the West division. Win the Big Ten. Win our bowl game.

Win or lose, the Notre Dame game will have zero impact on any of them.

The Wildcats’ three games after Notre Dame, against Big Ten West foes Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois, are much more important. If they win those three – or even two of them, depending on how other games play out – they will secure the West division crown and be on their way to Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship game. Both would be program firsts.

So that puts this marquee game against a marquee opponent in an odd sort of limbo. Especially in November, a month normally reserved for conference games.

“It’s unique, isn’t it?” asked head coach Pat Fitzgerald during Monday’s press conference. “We have a huge challenge in front of us, and stepping out of Big Ten play, it’s pretty rare.…

“At the same time, what a great opportunity. We’ve got nothing to lose. So, our guys, I think, are going to prepare pretty well and I think they’re going to be excited for the challenge.”

Yes, they are. Wildcat players know fully well that this is Notre Dame and that the eyes of the nation will be upon them. The game may not influence the Big Ten race, but it still means a lot to the Wildcat players.

Linebacker Paddy Fisher said after Saturday’s win over No. 20 Wisconsin that he’s been looking forward to this game since the schedule came out last spring. Fifth-year senior guard JB Butler, who was a freshman on the 2014 team that knocked off the Irish, is excited, too.

“We do have nothing to lose, but we’ve got a great opportunity to showcase our program in prime time against the No. 3 team in the country, which is a cool deal for us,” he said.

The game is certainly important for Butler and his family. His father was born and raised in South Bend, and he still has family in the area. He grew up going to Notre Dame games, so this game is special. He expects to have anywhere from 16 to 20 family and friends in the stands on Saturday night, “depending on the weather.”

“I know it means a lot to a lot of guys,” said Butler. “So I think that’s going to be something that we kind of stress all week. You can play loose. You can play loose and have fun because…it doesn’t really impact the Big Ten at all, but its’ still a meaningful game for us.”

That is exactly what makes this game so dangerous for Notre Dame. The undefeated Irish can’t afford a loss to earn a College Football Playoff bid, so the pressure is squarely on them.

Northwestern, on the other hand, can play without the weight of a division or conference title on the line. The Wildcats, who are feeling pretty good after winning four straight, can just let it rip and give the Irish their best shot.

No one would seem to want to beat Notre Dame more than Fitzgerald, an Irish kid from the south suburbs who was turned off by his recruiting experience at ND. He was the starting middle linebacker on the 1995 Northwestern team that stunned the Irish 17-15, and head coach of the 2014 team that upset them again, 43-40, in overtime. As much as anyone, he’s responsible for that two-game, 23-year winning streak.

Yet Fitzgerald didn’t want to talk much about his experiences with the media on Monday. When questioned about his specific memories of those games, he talked about the weather as much as anything: it was a hot day in 1995, a cold one in 2014.

He wouldn’t even expound on the Notre Dame team Northwestern will face on Saturday, providing only a few broad strokes. He said repeatedly that “the focus is on us” and his goal is only “getting better as a team.”

“They have talent at every position” and “their defensive front is outstanding” is about as far as he would go. When asked for more, he sarcastically started reading Irish players’ statistics from a sheet.

But even if Fitzgerald wasn’t very forthcoming, his players were.

“I think it’s exciting,” said safety Travis Whillock. “It’s a chance to show who we are as a program.”