Mixed emotions on Rate Bowl (ISU regrets)

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restovich

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Let me preface this with, I am glad the Gophers got this Phoenix Bowl game. New Mexico is a surprisingly good opponent, for a Bowl second choice. But I have some regrets about not facing the Big 12, specifically Iowa State.

Iowa State is my second favorite team in college football. I was an adjunct professor there for a year. Academically, it is a good school. I would have been rooting for a Gopher victory, but a strong Cyclone showing.

The year I taught there was the year after the Gophers beating West Virginia in the Rate Bowl. I rather tongue-in-cheeck asked my class at the beginning of the fall semester if the Gophers were again in the Rate Bowl and had to face ISU that year, to vote for who I should root for.

The vote was 14-0 ISU. Rotfl!
 

restovich said:
Let me preface this with, I am glad the Gophers got this Phoenix Bowl game. New Mexico is a surprisingly good opponent, for a Bowl second choice. But I have some regrets about not facing the Big 12, specifically Iowa State.

Iowa State is my second favorite team in college football. I was an adjunct professor there for a year. Academically, it is a good school. I would have been rooting for a Gopher victory, but a strong Cyclone showing.

The year I taught there was the year after the Gophers beating West Virginia in the Rate Bowl. I rather tongue-in-cheeck asked my class at the beginning of the fall semester if the Gophers were again in the Rate Bowl and had to face ISU that year, to vote for who I should root for.

The vote was 14-0 ISU. Rotfl!
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ISU students said you should cheer for ISU? I guess that would make sense.
 






Beside being in Arizona for a break from winter, nobody should be happy about the Gophers getting the Rate Bowl.
  1. They were disrespected from Vegas Bowl committee and Big Ten with Nebraska jumping them. So Big Ten records and head-head doesnt matter. This is an issue the Big Ten and their bowl contracts need to fix. Like in 2020 bowls, when the Gophers should of went to the Citrus Bowl placing in a 2nd place tie (1st place went to playoff and other 2nd place went to Rose Bowl) but skipped us for Michigan.
  2. Terrible venue to play a game. Baseball stadiums have horrible view points for fans and turf conditions are sub par. Injuries occur, players may sit out because of this and effects the game. This happened in the Pinstripe Bowl for us vs. Syracuse.
  3. Playing New Mexico does nothing for the program. Win and we're supposed to win, lose and it hurts recruiting and fan base outlook for 2026. It doesn't matter New Mexcico is 9-3 and has a decent team it's the perception of Big Ten vs Mt. West and a non-football school like New Mexico. Compared to a Boise State from Mt. West who has that pedigree.
 
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BigSchmidty17 said:
Beside being in Arizona for a break from winter, nobody should be happy about the Gophers getting the Rate Bowl.
  1. They were disrespected from Vegas Bowl committee and Big Ten with Nebraska jumping them. So Big Ten records and head-head doesnt matter. This is an issue the Big Ten and their bowl contracts need to fix. Like in 2020 bowls, when the Gophers should of went to the Citrus Bowl placing in a 2nd place tie (1st place went to playoff and other 2nd place went to Rose Bowl) but skipped us for Michigan.
  2. Terrible venue to play a game. Baseball stadiums have horrible view points for fans and turf conditions are sub par. Injuries occur, players may sit out because of this and effects the game. This happened in the Pinstripe Bowl for us vs. Syracuse.
  3. Playing New Mexico does nothing for the program. Win and we're supposed to win, lose and it hurts recruiting and fan base outlook for 2026. It doesn't matter New Mexcico is 9-3 and has a decent team it's the perception of Big Ten vs Mt. West and a non-football school like New Mexico. Compared to a Boise State from Mt. West who has that pedigree.
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To be fair we dip jump Wisconsin for the citrus bowl in 2014. Oddly enough I think Bama jumped Auburn and Michigan jumped us so we wound up playing the correct opponent and IMO a better location. This is the second time Vegas effed us, they took Wisconsin over us in 2021 as well despite the same record and a head to head win. You're right about New Mexico but unlike WVU and VA Tech they'll be motivated to play so it should be a battle. I think we win by two scores hopefully we see some younger guys play like Martino or Washington. Wouldn't mind getting a look at Brett Carroll on the oline either
 




BigSchmidty17 said:
Beside being in Arizona for a break from winter, nobody should be happy about the Gophers getting the Rate Bowl.
  1. They were disrespected from Vegas Bowl committee and Big Ten with Nebraska jumping them. So Big Ten records and head-head doesnt matter. This is an issue the Big Ten and their bowl contracts need to fix. Like in 2020 bowls, when the Gophers should of went to the Citrus Bowl placing in a 2nd place tie (1st place went to playoff and other 2nd place went to Rose Bowl) but skipped us for Michigan.
  2. Terrible venue to play a game. Baseball stadiums have horrible view points for fans and turf conditions are sub par. Injuries occur, players may sit out because of this and effects the game. This happened in the Pinstripe Bowl for us vs. Syracuse.
  3. Playing New Mexico does nothing for the program. Win and we're supposed to win, lose and it hurts recruiting and fan base outlook for 2026. It doesn't matter New Mexcico is 9-3 and has a decent team it's the perception of Big Ten vs Mt. West and a non-football school like New Mexico. Compared to a Boise State from Mt. West who has that pedigree.
Click to expand...
The turf in the Pinstripe Bowl was far worse. The bad field conditions the last time they played in this Bowl was because it rained unexpectedly, and they didn't close the roof, which probably won't happen again. It won't be any worse than the game they played at Wrigley Field 3 weeks ago.

They're 3.5 point favorites. Unless they lose 49-3 or something, a loss isn't going to effect recruiting or fan interest for 2026. No one will give it a 2nd thought by New Year's Day.
 

Can't control what the Vegas folks do. It is rather like what the Alamo Bowl folks did to us in 2002-2004. Screw 'em.

Just finding myself wishing we could have played ISU.
 

restovich said:
Can't control what the Vegas folks do. It is rather like what the Alamo Bowl folks did to us in 2002-2004. Screw 'em.

Just finding myself wishing we could have played ISU.
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The year the Alamo Bowl took Michigan State over us, who played Nebraska (Big 12) 2003 with a lesser overall record, but they did beat us head to head and the same conference record- We were rewarded with the fact that they played what was ranked as the worst bowl of the that bowl season, a boring affiar that saw Michigan State which fell apart at the end of the season lose 3-17.

A real snooze fest.

Part of what the bowls are looking for when choosing teams is not who earned what, it's who will put buts in seats and provide an entertaining game.

That last bit is something we didn't do very much of this year, even in most of our wins.

I, too, wish we were playing Iowa State (I have a degree from there as well as my undergrad at the U). Yes, playing New Mexico isn't great. Just show up like we did against Nebraska, blow them out of the stadium, and move on. It has the chance to be the best football game we've played in a bowl since the Auburn game.

It will beat the absolute snooze fest against Va Tech last year, which was like playing a high school football team, except we didn't blow them out of the stadium. We put in the typical minimum effort to notch the "W" because that was all the staff thought was required (and fortunately, it worked). Stop doing that, and we might see our fortunes rise in the bowl selection process.
 

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