It’s Official; Gophers play New Mexico in Rate Bowl

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The wife unexpectedly bought me a same day turn around flight to PHX so I'll get to see the game. Trying to recall how many times I have been to this bowl game. Off the top of my head I recall seeing Iowa St, Kansas, Texas Tech (ugh...) WVU and perhaps a couple more. I came close to a coronary during the Tech game. Not as close as th
at Friday night loss to Michigan though.
 





denguegopher said:
The wife unexpectedly bought me a same day turn around flight to PHX so I'll get to see the game. Trying to recall how many times I have been to this bowl game. Off the top of my head I recall seeing Iowa St, Kansas, Texas Tech (ugh...) WVU and perhaps a couple more. I came close to a coronary during the Tech game. Not as close as th
at Friday night loss to Michigan though. The forbidden to discuss game? I think I fixed it for you.
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I’m warming up on the game after reading more about all these teams declining bids. PJ cares about bowl games and will have the team ready. UNM is a pretty good squad who will probably treat the game like a big deal and be motivated. No clue where either team will be in terms of portal departures, but assuming they’re both somewhat “whole”, it should be competitive and entertaining. I’d rather MN was playing any P4 name brand, but this might be better than getting blow out by Utah in Vegas (although beating Utah in Vegas would’ve been cool).
 

From STPGopher The forbidden to discuss game? I think I fixed it for you.

Sorry, I slipped.
 






Some guy said:
It’s a pretty interesting deal. But if the big ten doesn’t have enough teams to fill its bowls I would bet money dollars would make the choices
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Bold is the opposite scenario to the one I made up (where we have enough teams for all bowls, but for some reason some number of bowls get cancelled so we have too many teams) .... that said, and to your point in the first place, yes you are absolutely correct that the Big Ten would put a team in the Pinstripe before the Rate and Detroit Bowls by virtue of how much more the Pinstripe pays out.

To be honest I was surprised to see how much the Pinstripe pays out. It's a pretty considerable amount.

This year's scenario doesn't work for either of these because the Big Ten knew it was going to get all the money from filling all the bowls regardless of which teams went to which bowls, so in that sense it doesn't care.
 

tjgopher said:
The Big Ten really doesn't use a tiering system like it did from 2014-19. The bowls have more of an independent choice now and Pinstripe picked Penn State over Minnesota (which as you said was fine with the Big Ten and fine with Minnesota).

Still doesn't mean Minnesota didn't get passed over. It did. But, everyone was fine with it. And, as you said, it made geographical sense. But, let's be honest, if the Pinstripe really wanted the Gophers, they could have and would have gotten them.

Now, getting passed over by Vegas with the pick of Nebraska prior to that is much less palatable. That stinks, but it is reality. The Big Ten wasn't standing in the way.
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Think we're mostly on the same page. Are you able to find/provide some kind of documentation backing up what you say about it not being tiers anymore? You seem confident that that was a feature of the previous bowl cycle contract(s), so perhaps that's what I was thinking of. There will be a new cycle starting 2026, with the 2020-2025 running out.

It's semantics and nitpicky, but if the Big Ten was getting all the money regardless, because it was filling all its slots, and no one cared about a team objectively lower in the standings going to a "higher" bowl game (where the ranking uses payout as the sole criteria, which may or may not be a valid way to rank them), then I do not agree that being "jumped" can even be talked about.


There is even something to think about of if Fleck, Coyle, and the Gophers would have actually wanted to sign up for the Vegas Bowl, as opposed to the Rate Bowl, to receive a much tougher opponent in Utah. Fleck has is "bowl streak" to maintain 🙄


The thing that really got screwed up is we were supposed to play Iowa State. That would've been a more appealing match up, both upper midwest fan bases flying down to PHX.

Just the day after Xmas being the only snag really.

Oh well, water under the bridge at this point.
 



GopherGrit said:
Think we're mostly on the same page. Are you able to find/provide some kind of documentation backing up what you say about it not being tiers anymore? You seem confident that that was a feature of the previous bowl cycle contract(s), so perhaps that's what I was thinking of. There will be a new cycle starting 2026, with the 2020-2025 running out.

It's semantics and nitpicky, but if the Big Ten was getting all the money regardless, because it was filling all its slots, and no one cared about a team objectively lower in the standings going to a "higher" bowl game (where the ranking uses payout as the sole criteria, which may or may not be a valid way to rank them), then I do not agree that being "jumped" can even be talked about.


There is even something to think about of if Fleck, Coyle, and the Gophers would have actually wanted to sign up for the Vegas Bowl, as opposed to the Rate Bowl, to receive a much tougher opponent in Utah. Fleck has is "bowl streak" to maintain 🙄
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It’s funny you ask for documentation on one claim and then insinuate this later in the same post with no evidence
GopherGrit said:
The thing that really got screwed up is we were supposed to play Iowa State. That would've been a more appealing match up, both upper midwest fan bases flying down to PHX.

Just the day after Xmas being the only snag really.

Oh well, water under the bridge at this point.
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Some guy said:
It’s funny you ask for documentation on one claim and then insinuate this later in the same post with no evidence
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So my son and I will be coming to the game from Indiana. Besides the game itself, does anyone here know of any Gopher fan gatherings planned for the weekend? Would love to join
 


denguegopher said:
The wife unexpectedly bought me a same day turn around flight to PHX so I'll get to see the game. Trying to recall how many times I have been to this bowl game. Off the top of my head I recall seeing Iowa St, Kansas, Texas Tech (ugh...) WVU and perhaps a couple more. I came close to a coronary during the Tech game. Not as close as th
at Friday night loss to Michigan though.
Click to expand...
Be sure to bring this just in case...

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Looks like the weather is trending a little better. Maybe the heavier rain on Thursday. Keep the dome closed please.
 

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