The preseason bowl picture for Minnesota starts with a split-screen: a few national outlets still see the Gophers headed to a bowl, while one ESPN projection has them staying home entirely.
That lonely no-bowl pick comes from ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura. The rest of the national field is far more optimistic.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach has Minnesota in the First Responder Bowl in Dallas against Arizona State. CBS Sports and Athlon both land the Gophers in the Pinstripe Bowl in New York, with CBS pairing them with Pittsburgh and Athlon matching them with Pittsburgh as well.
The Athletic also sends Minnesota to the Pinstripe Bowl, though with NC State. On3 goes a different direction, projecting the Gophers to the Music City Bowl in Nashville against LSU.
Last season, ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, The Athletic, and Athlon all nailed Minnesota’s bowl destination in the preseason by picking the Rate Bowl. The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman even had the opponent right with Iowa State, though that matchup never happened because Iowa State declined to go to a bowl game.
If you’re reading the tea leaves from those results, the Pinstripe Bowl appears to be the popular early guess this time around. On3’s Brett McMurphy is the most bullish of the national projections, though he also had Minnesota in the Music City Bowl a year ago.
My own Big Ten bowl board has Minnesota in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa against Tennessee. In that set of projections, Ohio State and Oregon earn first-round byes in the College Football Playoff, while Indiana is slotted against BYU and USC is matched up at Oklahoma. Iowa lands in the Citrus Bowl against Ole Miss, Michigan in the Music City Bowl against LSU, Illinois in the Pinstripe Bowl against Pittsburgh, Penn State in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against Florida State, Nebraska in the Cactus Bowl against Kansas State, Wisconsin in the First Responder Bowl against Tulane, Maryland in the Armed Forces Bowl against Army, UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl against Missouri, and Washington in the Holiday Bowl against Clemson.
There are a couple of structural reasons those projections look the way they do. The “legacy Pac-12” teams are expected to keep playing in bowls tied to the old Pac-12 setup, which is why there’s a clear separation in the bracket and why those spots aren’t available for other Big Ten teams.
There’s also no Detroit bowl in the mix anymore. That game had been part of the Big Ten bowl landscape since 1997, and its disappearance leaves the conference one slot short.
That makes it more likely Big Ten teams will end up in non-affiliated bowls, which is why Wisconsin and Maryland are projected into the First Responder Bowl and Armed Forces Bowl, respectively. Those spots can shift as the season unfolds and other Power 4 conferences start missing bowl eligibility, since those games will be eager to take a Big Ten team if one is available.
For Minnesota, the preseason range is broad, and that’s no surprise. The Gophers’ schedule creates plenty of swing games, with Michigan, Washington, and Iowa all looking like toss-ups. Change a few of those results, and the bowl math can look very different in a hurry.
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For a program looking to build momentum early, this kind of September tune-up can still matter beyond the final score. Minnesota has the pieces to look more settled on both sides of the ball, and the question is whether that veteran core can turn a lopsided opening matchup into the kind of statement start fans have been waiting for. [Read more 🡒]