OFFICIAL: Minnesota vs Syracuse in Pinstripe Bowl


Isn't NYC at least safer than Minneapolis?
Statistically, based on violent crime per capita, it sure is. And downtown hotels in Nashville on the nights before and after the Music City Bowl might actually be a lot more expensive than folks on this board think. And NYC is a great city. The weather in NYC will probably be low to mid 40s ... that seems to be the actual objection from many folks. And that is what it is. Good weather for playing football, actually. No dehydration!
 

I travel for work and have been pretty much everywhere at least once and I hate going to NYC. It’s disconcerting for a lot of folks including me I go there when I have to—here I don’t have to and will take a pass. I don’t doubt the players will have an OK time but as a place for a bowl game it sucks Coyle’s arse. Music City and Mayo bowl would both be way better for the majority of our fans, IMO, both for the location and opponent.
 

The fans here are behaving like the Israelites in the wilderness. Iowa is going to Nashville. They are new to that bowl. Even though the Hawkeyes aren't very good, they lost to a couple of bad teams, but they beat us, Wisconsin & Purdue.
 

I travel for work and have been pretty much everywhere at least once and I hate going to NYC. It’s disconcerting for a lot of folks including me I go there when I have to—here I don’t have to and will take a pass. I don’t doubt the players will have an OK time but as a place for a bowl game it sucks Coyle’s arse. Music City and Mayo bowl would both be way better for the majority of our fans, IMO, both for the location and opponent.

Best post in thread. NYC is a dump and it's no longer a World Class city
 




Didn't know we had Carmen Sandiego posting on the board. We can trim NYC off the list of where to look for you. Too scary.
Deny, deflect, dance. The sad life of the unpaid useful idiot.
 

Deny, deflect, dance. The sad life of the unpaid useful idiot.

This thing that you're doing. I don't know what it has to do with the Gophers bowl game. But you've been here for two and a half years now and this isn't the first embarrassing political temper tantrum that you've thrown on one of the sports board. There's a whole OTB where you can whine about NYC and how it hurts your feelings from afar.
 





We are in a good bowl game, even if there is a segment of GopherHolers who dislike or are afraid of NYC. Moreover, if we hadn’t choked in both Purdue and Iowa games—if we had won just one of these supremely winnable games—we would have gotten a better bowl. If we had won both of these very winnable games, we’d be in a great bowl game. The Pinstripe Bowl, which will be a great social experience and football game for the players, is a totally fine assignment given how the Gophers performed during the year. That we have fans who are turned off by large urban areas and/or mid-40 degree weather, is too bad. It would be great if everybody could be pleased. But it isn’t a B1G conspiracy. We are going to one of the bowls we should be going to given the season we had.
 

We are in a good bowl game, even if there is a segment of GopherHolers who dislike or are afraid of NYC. Moreover, if we hadn’t choked in both Purdue and Iowa games—if we had won just one of these supremely winnable games—we would have gotten a better bowl. If we had won both of these very winnable games, we’d be in a great bowl game. The Pinstripe Bowl, which will be a great social experience and football game for the players, is a totally fine assignment given how the Gophers performed during the year. That we have fans who are turned off by large urban areas and/or mid-40 degree weather, is too bad. It would be great if everybody could be pleased. But it isn’t a B1G conspiracy. We are going to one of the bowls we should be going to given the season we had.
Sure. Just random happenstance that no other B1G team with 8 wins has been sent to the Pinstripe Bowl. Ever.

Or the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, for that matter.

Pure chance, you say.

Yeah, no. Gophers got hosed two years running.
 
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This thing that you're doing. I don't know what it has to do with the Gophers bowl game. But you've been here for two and a half years now and this isn't the first embarrassing political temper tantrum that you've thrown on one of the sports board. There's a whole OTB where you can whine about NYC and how it hurts your feelings from afar.
Forgive me for not caring how long you have been vomiting political garbage on a sports board.
 



Lol yup...bang up analysis. And last year, teams with the same record and whom the Gophers defeated -- Purdue and Wisconsin -- got better bowls than Minnesota. So yeah.... The formula seems to be beat em, go to a worse bowl. Lose to em, obviously go to a worse bowl. Once every 8 years or so we'll throw you a bone.
Exactly.

2021: "Minnesota deserves to go to the worst bowl game possible. Ugly losses to Illinois and Bowling Green override head to head wins against Purdue and Wisconsin."

2022: "Minnesota deserves to go to the worst bowl game possible. Illinois and Iowa's head to head wins over Minnesota override the fact that they both lost 2 games to teams with losing records."

It's just Gopher-centric tunnel vision and an unwillingness to acknowledge that other teams also have flaws and failures and lose games that they were supposed to win. Who cares if Iowa lost at home to the last place team in the Big 12 and only went 7-5? They "earned" the Music City Bowl apparently.

If you wanna say bowl placement isn't based on merit, or at least not solely on merit, fine. Minnesota has never been to the Pinstripe Bowl, Iowa has never been to the Music City Bowl, Purdue and Illinois haven't played in a Florida bowl game in like 15 years or more. The placements make sense in that respect. But to say that the Gophers deserved their bowl placements in both 2021 and 2022 based on merit feels logically inconsistent. It's just pouting about our own teams shortcomings and not acknowledging that other teams don't always get "punished" in bowl placement for the same sorts of failures.
 

I agree with Cayman, they change the narrative to justify the placement. Last year head to head didn't "really" matter, having a bad loss was more important. This year, "oh, but head to head they beat the Gophers".

I've said this before, a bowl win over Syracuse does NOTHING for national recruting (or respect), just like WV last year. The Outback Bowl against Auburn....now that was fun! I'm not say they desevere that this year, but they haven't "deserved" WV last year ot Syracuse this year either.

And, I can't stand NYC as a location for a bowl game. And NO, I've never spent a day in NYC.
 

I agree with Cayman, they change the narrative to justify the placement. Last year head to head didn't "really" matter, having a bad loss was more important. This year, "oh, but head to head they beat the Gophers".
Who exactly is this "they" who keeps changing the narrative? Other posters on gopherhole?

We were a mid-tier team in the conference and we got a mid-tier bowl game. Way too much obsessing about the bowl selection order and crap like that.

Most Bowl games are not slotted based on record, once you get beyond the top spots like the CFP and New Year's 6 games there are other factors besides record that go into the selection process.

Cayman laid out a big chunk of the reasons for why the bowl process went the way it did this year:

"Minnesota has never been to the Pinstripe Bowl, Iowa has never been to the Music City Bowl, Purdue and Illinois haven't played in a Florida bowl game in like 15 years or more. The placements make sense in that respect."

People are getting way too bent out of shape about this and looking for signs of some sort of conspiracy against the Gophers.
 

Yep.

A school having never been to a bowl at all, or or a very long time, is a huge factor to bowl selection committees, for whatever reason.

We haven't been to Nashville in a long time .... but Iowa had never been. No need to analyze further than that, with any logic.
 

Yep, there was a time going to the Sun Bowl (twice) was Exhibit A as evidence of Gophers dissing by the Bowl Selection Conspiracy Consortium or BSCC...

Bottom line for each and every season is that the better you perform in the W-L column, the better any given team's chance of landing a good bowl increases.

Where the Gophers ended up this year bowl-wise was completely in their control. Unfortunately skidded into the ditch a couple of times this year...

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Creative Charters sent out their bowl game price today... they want $3k for two ppl :LOL::LOL::LOL: I'd spend that on a special experience like the Rose Bowl, but not this.

I don't know how y'all do the bowl game traveling bit, it is soooo expensive to do so from the Twin Cities.
 

Creative Charters sent out their bowl game price today... they want $3k for two ppl :LOL::LOL::LOL: I'd spend that on a special experience like the Rose Bowl, but not this.

I don't know how y'all do the bowl game traveling bit, it is soooo expensive to do so from the Twin Cities.
Its certainly not ideal to wait until 3 weeks before a trip to make plans. High airfare and often high rental car and hotel prices by that point.

I'm already on a different trip over the holidays this year so it wasn't possible for me anyway. Hoping the Gophers make the Frozen Four in Tampa this year and will try to do that trip if they make it.
 

Exactly.

2021: "Minnesota deserves to go to the worst bowl game possible. Ugly losses to Illinois and Bowling Green override head to head wins against Purdue and Wisconsin."

2022: "Minnesota deserves to go to the worst bowl game possible. Illinois and Iowa's head to head wins over Minnesota override the fact that they both lost 2 games to teams with losing records."

It's just Gopher-centric tunnel vision and an unwillingness to acknowledge that other teams also have flaws and failures and lose games that they were supposed to win. Who cares if Iowa lost at home to the last place team in the Big 12 and only went 7-5? They "earned" the Music City Bowl apparently.

If you wanna say bowl placement isn't based on merit, or at least not solely on merit, fine. Minnesota has never been to the Pinstripe Bowl, Iowa has never been to the Music City Bowl, Purdue and Illinois haven't played in a Florida bowl game in like 15 years or more. The placements make sense in that respect. But to say that the Gophers deserved their bowl placements in both 2021 and 2022 based on merit feels logically inconsistent. It's just pouting about our own teams shortcomings and not acknowledging that other teams don't always get "punished" in bowl placement for the same sorts of failures.

Yup. Saying that we could have played ourselves into a better bowl game is obviously true. But these people are completely ignoring the moving target in terms of results. Head to head matters one year. Doesn't matter the next year.

First 8-4 Big Ten team to visit bowls this low in the pecking order. Two years in a row. Jumped by 7-5 teams both years. I mean....Penn State last year with a losing conference record? We needed three more wins to get the Outback Bowl for fs sake. People need to stick to one excuse here. Did we "deserve" these bowls and worse teams "deserve" better bowls? Or does merit only go so far and reputation play as much a factor?
 

Yup. Saying that we could have played ourselves into a better bowl game is obviously true. But these people are completely ignoring the moving target in terms of results. Head to head matters one year. Doesn't matter the next year.

First 8-4 Big Ten team to visit bowls this low in the pecking order. Two years in a row. Jumped by 7-5 teams both years. I mean....Penn State last year with a losing conference record? We needed three more wins to get the Outback Bowl for fs sake. People need to stick to one excuse here. Did we "deserve" these bowls and worse teams "deserve" better bowls? Or does merit only go so far and reputation play as much a factor?
Yep, this is what I'm saying. Just watch, next year we'll get another crappy bowl slotting and a team like IA or Wis will jump us into a bowl they'd just been in. Then we'll hear "doesn't matter if they'd just been at that bowl".

That's why this is such a tough spot for a coach, and I think PJ has done a phenominal job. You're not an elite program and until you go 11-1 or 10-2 every year you won't get the top bowl bids.
 

Yup. Saying that we could have played ourselves into a better bowl game is obviously true. But these people are completely ignoring the moving target in terms of results. Head to head matters one year. Doesn't matter the next year.

First 8-4 Big Ten team to visit bowls this low in the pecking order. Two years in a row. Jumped by 7-5 teams both years. I mean....Penn State last year with a losing conference record? We needed three more wins to get the Outback Bowl for fs sake. People need to stick to one excuse here. Did we "deserve" these bowls and worse teams "deserve" better bowls? Or does merit only go so far and reputation play as much a factor?
What are you even arguing, anymore? What is the "point" that you've won?

There clearly is no consistent set of rules or objective criteria that you can apply from one year to the next that will ever make any sense for how the lower bowls are selected.

So what? Did you "win" the discussion, then?
 


Creative Charters sent out their bowl game price today... they want $3k for two ppl :LOL::LOL::LOL: I'd spend that on a special experience like the Rose Bowl, but not this.

I don't know how y'all do the bowl game traveling bit, it is soooo expensive to do so from the Twin Cities.
If you're fine traveling to Newark and can do an extended stay, there are some good flight prices.

Go out on Sun Country Tues Dec 27 and come back Sat Dec 31 on United, for $258. No bags on the Sun Country leg, so probably more like $3xx with a bag.
 


Here is the Erban's package that was mentioned by SPJeff:

http://www.travelingopher.com/bowl-travel.html

$1475 per person based on double occupancy
includes
RT NON STOP AIR SUN COUNTRY AIRLINES , 3 NIGHTS MOXY HOTEL TIMES SQUARE,

ALL GROUND TRANSPORTATION FROM AIRPORT/HOTEL, HOTEL/GAME, HOTEL/AIRPORT
DEPART MORNING WEDNESDAY DEC 28
RETURN MORNING SATURDAY DEC 31
 




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