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Minnesota winds up in Quick Lane Bowl
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Yes, five wins was enough. Minnesota has its Academic Progress Rate to thank for that.
The Gophers are indeed going bowling, despite the fact that they fell in the regular-season finale to Wisconsin. They’ll take on Central Michigan in the Quick Lane Bowl on Dec. 28 at 4 p.m. CT in Detroit.
It will mark the fourth straight year in which the Gophers earned the right to play in a postseason game. They haven’t won a bowl game, however, since beating Alabama in the 2004 Music City Bowl. Tracy Claeys will look to end that streak in his first postseason game since taking over for Jerry Kill.
They’ll take on a Central Michigan squad that finished the season 7-5 overall in 6-2 in Mid-American Conference play. It’ll be just the second meeting between the two programs, the last of which came in 1987.
Minnesota does have plenty of familiarity with the MAC. The team squared off with Kent State and Ohio during non-conference play, both of which were games the Gophers held on for one-possession wins.
The Gophers were one of 10 B1G teams to earn bowl berths.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.