A week after taking a hard hit at Mississippi State, Minnesota’s bowl outlook is already looking thinner. The Gophers’ 38-13 loss didn’t just count as a bad non-conference result - it also changed how the postseason board is shaking out, both nationally and in the Big Ten picture.
The national projections are split, but the mood around Minnesota has cooled. ESPN’s Mark Schlabach still has the Gophers in the First Responder Bowl in Dallas against Arizona State.
CBS Sports moved Minnesota back to the Pinstripe Bowl in New York, where it would face Wake Forest. Athlon also has the Gophers headed to the Pinstripe Bowl, though with Pittsburgh on the other side.
On3, meanwhile, took the sharpest turn and now has Minnesota missing bowl eligibility altogether.
That shift from On3 came after Brett McMurphy removed Minnesota from his postseason field entirely, a notable change after previously placing the Gophers in the Music City Bowl. CBS also adjusted its view of Minnesota upward slightly, flipping the team from the First Responder Bowl back to the Pinstripe Bowl.
My own Big Ten bowl projections still have Minnesota in New York, matching up with Pittsburgh in the Pinstripe Bowl. The rest of the league board, as projected here, runs from Ohio State getting a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff to a wide spread of conference tie-ins: Indiana vs.
SMU in the playoff, USC vs. BYU, Iowa vs.
Ole Miss in the Citrus Bowl, Michigan vs. Tennessee in the ReliaQuest Bowl, Penn State vs.
Oklahoma in the Music City Bowl, Illinois vs. Georgia Tech in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, Nebraska vs.
Kansas State in the Cactus Bowl, Wisconsin vs. Arizona State in the First Responder Bowl, Maryland vs.
Army in the Armed Forces Bowl, Oregon vs. Texas Tech in the Alamo Bowl, UCLA vs.
Missouri in the Las Vegas Bowl, and Washington vs. North Carolina in the Holiday Bowl.
The bigger takeaway for Minnesota is that Saturday’s loss knocked the ceiling down a notch. In the season projections that feed my bowl picks, the Gophers dropped from an 8-4 forecast to 6-6, with the Mississippi State game now counted as a loss and less confidence in the defense holding up against certain Big Ten opponents.
In Other News...
P.J. Fleck Just Framed Minnesotas 2026 Roster Challenge Clearly
Minnesotas roster-building reality is becoming harder to ignore, and P.J. Fleck put a blunt frame around it this week. As college football keeps drifting deeper into the era of roster spending, Fleck pointed out that the Gophers are operating with a much smaller budget than powers such as Ohio State and Oregon, a gap that shows up not just in recruiting but in the ability to stockpile depth and bring in older, more proven help.
For Minnesota, the issue is already showing up in the present tense. The Gophers are dealing with injuries at running back, which only increases the pressure on a roster that has to lean on player development and retention more than splashy additions. Flecks point was less about excuses than about the math of building a competitive team in 2026, and how much harder that becomes when the margin for error is thinner than it is elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Gophers Revenue Pressure Is Growing At The Worst Time
The University of Minnesotas athletics department is staring at a revenue squeeze at a particularly awkward time, with Gophers football season-ticket holders for 2026 checking in at 29,289 after being higher in previous years. Add in the rising costs tied to player payments from the House vs. NCAA settlement, and the financial picture around the program is getting harder to ignore even as the fall calendar starts to take shape.
Mark Coyle has already pointed to the need for nonconference games and the guaranteed payments that come with them as part of the departments broader approach, a reminder that scheduling is now tied as much to balance sheets as it is to wins and losses. Recent attendance figures and the lineup of upcoming games only sharpen the pressure, because every crowd and every date on the schedule matters a little more when a projected fiscal-year shortfall is looming in 2027. [Read more 🡒]
Which Former Gophers Are Really Rising In The NFL Right Now
Week 1 gave former Gophers plenty of different NFL storylines to watch, and a few of them already looked like players whose roles could keep growing. Jack Gibbons saw notable time with the Arizona Cardinals, while Boye Mafe also stood out with the Cincinnati Bengals, giving Minnesota fans a reminder that the pipeline from Dinkytown to the league is still producing contributors in a hurry. Elsewhere, some ex-Gophers were on the field only sparingly, and a few did not dress at all, which makes the early-season picture as much about opportunity as production.
Week 2 should help sort out who is actually climbing and who is just getting an opening look. The article points to upcoming matchups and possible role changes as the next checkpoint, and for the Gophers crowd, that is the part worth following closely. Early September can still reshape a depth chart, and a strong first impression often matters more than the final line in the box score. [Read more 🡒]