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Gopher07

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Decided it would be easier for us all to consolidate the bowl projections in one place.

If you have a new one, I'll update this post to include it.

Texas Bowl Predictions (11)
ESPN (overall): Texas Bowl vs BC/Texas Bowl vs Texas Tech (http://espn.go.com/college-football/bowls/projections) Updated 12/1
ESPN (B1G blog): Texas Bowl (http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/90601/big-ten-bowl-projections-week-14-5) Updated 12/1
CBS: Texas Bowl vs Oregon State (http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/bowls/predictions) Updated 12/7
Star Tribune: Texas Bowl vs Oregon State (http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/234931731.html) Updated 12/8
SI.com: Texas Bowl vs Oregon State (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20131208/college-football-bowl-projections/) Updated 12/8
Phil Steele: Texas Bowl vs Washington State (http://www.philsteele.com/bowls/13-14/bowlprojections.html) Updated 12/7
USA Today: Texas Bowl vs Washington State (http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...game-florida-state-auburn-ohio-state/3906673/) Updated 12/8
National Football Post: Texas Bowl vs Texas Tech (http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/201314-Bowl-Projections-8617.html) Updated 12/2
Athlon: Texas Bowl vs Texas Tech (http://athlonsports.com/college-football/college-footballs-post-week-14-bowl-projections) Updated 12/3
CFN: Texas Bowl vs Washington State (http://cfn.scout.com/2/557866.html) Updated 12/7
BTN: Texas Bowl vs Texas Tech (http://btn.com/2013/12/08/bowl-projections-heres-my-final-2013-list/) Updated 12/8

Gator Bowl Predictions (1)
SBNation: Gator Bowl vs LSU (http://www.sbnation.com/college-foo...e-projections-2013-predictions-ohio-state-fsu) Updated 12/8


Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl Predictions (1)
Sporting News: BWW Bowl vs Oklahoma (http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-fo...ctions-with-bama-bumped-its-fsu-vs-ohio-state) Updated 12/2
 


I know the Gophers' non-conference schedule is not stellar (New Mexico State is awful), - but two of our foes are bowl eligible with 7 and 6 wins respectively - UNLV and San Jose State (the latter having knocked-off previously undefeated Fresno State). Does anyone know if either of these two teams are projected to get bowl bids?
 


gopherfield said:
I know the Gophers' non-conference schedule is not stellar (New Mexico State is awful), - but two of our foes are bowl eligible with 7 and 6 wins respectively - UNLV and San Jose State (the latter having knocked-off previously undefeated Fresno State). Does anyone know if either of these two teams are projected to get bowl bids?
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Both are projected by at least one source, yes. UNLV is projected Hawaii Bowl by SI and Idaho Potato Bowl by one of ESPN's guys, while San Jose is projected New Mexico Bowl by one of ESPN's guys.
 


Updated w/ SBNation and Phil Steele.
 

Gopher07 said:
Both are projected by at least one source, yes. UNLV is projected Hawaii Bowl by SI and Idaho Potato Bowl by one of ESPN's guys, while San Jose is projected New Mexico Bowl by one of ESPN's guys.
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Mountain West has 6 Bowl tie-ins with 7 Bowl eligible teams. San Jose State (6-6) will likely be left out by virtue of UNLV's longer bowl drought, UNLV's better overall record, and a wash in both teams' ability to travel. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.

UNLV and CSU are 7-5. I think CSU definitely gets rewarded for playing BAMA and will be a lock.


San Jose played: Navy, MINN, Stanford, and Sacramento in OOC (traveling to MINN and Stanford); they are 2-0 vs CSU and UNLV

CSU played: Alabama (in Tuscaloosa), Cal Poly, Tulsa (away), and Colorado (@Denver) in OOC; 0-1 vs SJSU / DNP UNLV

UNLV played: MINN, Arizona, Western Illinois, and Central Michigan (traveling only to MINN) in OOC; O-1 vs SJSU / DNP CSU
 






Updated with USA Today, Athlon, Sporting News and National Football Post.
 

This isn't happening the Gator bowl is taking Michigan, Iowa or Nebraska all day over Minnesota, we all know that and I don't want to play Georgia, they were within wisker of beating Auburn, and played Alabama pretty damn tough. Gophers need to win the bowl game. I want to play someone we can beat with this years squad, and that is the Texas Longhorns. Do your analysis of potential bowl opponents, people think we cannot pull off BWW but I say we can(we need our alumni to play politics and pull some strings). This year we will bring the butts in the seats they want this year for BWW. For me it is BWW or bust, it is the logical choice. My brother who is former season ticket holder (now back on bandwagon after getting burnt out during Brewster years) said he would travel to Arizona because we can visit Familiy, we cannot be the only ones that are thinking that way, there is some incentive to go to Arizona not so much Houston.
The matchup against Texas would be much more valuable for TV than say a Kansas State match up even though we could beat them too.
We want recruiting exposure in Texas and BWW is taking the longhorns we want to be on the other side of that dance card.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
This isn't happening the Gator bowl is taking Michigan, Iowa or Nebraska all day over Minnesota, we all know that and I don't want to play Georgia, they were within wisker of beating Auburn, and played Alabama pretty damn tough. I want to play someone we can beat with this years squad, and that is the Texas Longhorns. Do you analysis, people think we cannot pull off BWW but I say we can and will bring the butts in the seats they want this year. For me it is BWW or bust.
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lol after playing and hanging with 2 top top defences in the nation the last 2 weeks I am smacking my lips at taking on a team like Georgia... slightly down from years past... but a constant top 10 team.. and a much better team than texas. Texas is no where near the same program it was in the early/mid 00's
 



Would I like to play Georgia who wouldn't, yes, hell yeah we would want to play Georgia. That said, not in front of 40,000 of their fans in Jacksonville, Florida when they are playing at a high level and just made a heck of a run against Georgia Tech to come back. Texas Longhorns still have a lot of prestige and is a name opponent that we can clearly beat, for me recruiting wise we need to keep working the State of Texas for football players. Some of our best players have been Texans.
We will not get the Gator bowl bid unless they are left with us or Nebraska and I still say they would take Nebraska. We have the Alumni base to make the BWW a reality, no influence with Gator bowl committee is likely. I would rather have an Ace in the hand with the Bowl committe(something we can make happen) then gamble on the luck of the draw.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
Do your analysis of potential bowl opponents, people think we cannot pull off BWW but I say we can(we need our alumni to play politics and pull some strings). This year we will bring the butts in the seats they want this year for BWW. For me it is BWW or bust, it is the logical choice.
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BWW picks before Gator....we're jumping two of these three teams/fanbases (Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska)?

The folks in Tempe want Minnesota for the fourth time in the last eight years when the previous three trips weren't anything spectacular fan wise? The two highest attended games in the bowls history were the two Iowa appearances. Michigan and Nebraska have never played in this bowl....why would they pass either of those two up?
 

Maximus said:
BWW picks before Gator....we're jumping two of these three teams/fanbases (Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska)?

The folks in Tempe want Minnesota for the fourth time in the last eight years when the previous three trips weren't anything spectacular fan wise? The two highest attended games in the bowls history were the two Iowa appearances. Michigan and Nebraska have never played in this bowl....why would they pass either of those two up?
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So do you think we have a realistic shot at going to Jacksonville? I didn't say we can out gun Iowa or Michigan for sure unless we get some inside pull, but if I'm going to load up my limited bullets and potential influence what do I invest time and effort in, the unkonwn or something that might actually have a chance.
Besides, Tempe where is our Alumni base likely going to have any pull and would we have the ability to pull some politics or get people out? If some of the wheels go to bat for us we have a shot, this time were going to have to show up and prove that we will go to Tempe. The AD and the alumni chapter leave this to chance and we will for sure end up in Houston. If your an alumn and you know that other alumns went to bat for your team and stepped up to the plate, then this is our chance to show we will deliver in kind, is what I am saying. We didn't have great incentive to go to Tempe in the past, we have a winning team( a team a lot of people are excited about) and program on the rise this year, and people do have the relatives angle to play(I didn't in past years). I can't be alone in this selfish relative thing. To me we have a better shot of pulling off BWW than we do Gator.
 

I wish we could rank our travel preference vs. tickets purchased.

Location will determine the duration of my stay.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
This isn't happening the Gator bowl is taking Michigan, Iowa or Nebraska all day over Minnesota, we all know that and I don't want to play Georgia, they were within wisker of beating Auburn, and played Alabama pretty damn tough. Gophers need to win the bowl game. I want to play someone we can beat with this years squad, and that is the Texas Longhorns. Do your analysis of potential bowl opponents, people think we cannot pull off BWW but I say we can(we need our alumni to play politics and pull some strings). This year we will bring the butts in the seats they want this year for BWW. For me it is BWW or bust, it is the logical choice. My brother who is former season ticket holder (now back on bandwagon after getting burnt out during Brewster years) said he would travel to Arizona because we can visit Familiy, we cannot be the only ones that are thinking that way, there is some incentive to go to Arizona not so much Houston.
The matchup against Texas would be much more valuable for TV than say a Kansas State match up even though we could beat them too.
We want recruiting exposure in Texas and BWW is taking the longhorns we want to be on the other side of that dance card.
Click to expand...

gopherdudepart2 said:
Would I like to play Georgia who wouldn't, yes, hell yeah we would want to play Georgia. That said, not in front of 40,000 of their fans in Jacksonville, Florida when they are playing at a high level and just made a heck of a run against Georgia Tech to come back. Texas Longhorns still have a lot of prestige and is a name opponent that we can clearly beat, for me recruiting wise we need to keep working the State of Texas for football players. Some of our best players have been Texans.
We will not get the Gator bowl bid unless they are left with us or Nebraska and I still say they would take Nebraska. We have the Alumni base to make the BWW a reality, no influence with Gator bowl committee is likely. I would rather have an Ace in the hand with the Bowl committe(something we can make happen) then gamble on the luck of the draw.
Click to expand...


from your first post it sounds like your scared to play Georgia.. you said you don't want to play Georgia... then you say hell yeah to playing the Dogs.... what is it... you want to play in a bowl where the gophers would win over a mediocre texas team or against a strong opponent like Georgia where you could see a real good defensive B1G vs SEC game.. a Georgia matchup would do more for this program than beating up a mediocre texas team...... I don't care about name prestige.. I want to play a tough program... a measuring stick... a game that could help shape the program... you want a STATEMENT win.... bring on the big ol bad SEC...
 

I don't want to play Texas Tech

stuck_in_scony_go4_fan said:
from your first post it sounds like your scared to play Georgia.. you said you don't want to play Georgia... then you say hell yeah to playing the Dogs.... what is it... you want to play in a bowl where the gophers would win over a mediocre texas team or against a strong opponent like Georgia where you could see a real good defensive B1G vs SEC game.. a Georgia matchup would do more for this program than beating up a mediocre texas team...... I don't care about name prestige.. I want to play a tough program... a measuring stick... a game that could help shape the program... you want a STATEMENT win.... bring on the big ol bad SEC...
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Gator bowl president has said repeatingly that they are not taking us.
Bottom line I don't want to see the Gophers play Texas Tech again, we gain nothing from that matchup and TT fans are lameoes according to reports and Texas Aggie fan that visits us. I thought with some inside baseball we could finagal a way to BWW bowl but that sounds doubtful also.
With all the statements the Gator bowl president has been making about Michigan or Nebraska it is pretty clear to everyone that the Gator bowl is not taking us unless somehow Michigan, Iowa and Nebraska are off the board. They are making it clear they do not want us.
I know it is a pipedream for BWW and stupid Texas or Heart of dallas bowl are where we are going.
From what everyone is saying all the talking and bowl surveys are meaningless anyways, Texas bowl doesn't want us again and we don't want to go back to Houston especially because of the flight costs. reality is we may end up in Heart of Dallas bowl if Texas bowl works another deal with them to swap and get a different conference team with money. We will draw nobody if it is Texas Tech again and most of us have indicated no interest in Houston. Suffering Gopher fans are going to pay the price for the bowl reputation.
 

stuck_in_scony_go4_fan said:
from your first post it sounds like your scared to play Georgia.. you said you don't want to play Georgia... then you say hell yeah to playing the Dogs.... what is it... you want to play in a bowl where the gophers would win over a mediocre texas team or against a strong opponent like Georgia where you could see a real good defensive B1G vs SEC game.. a Georgia matchup would do more for this program than beating up a mediocre texas team...... I don't care about name prestige.. I want to play a tough program... a measuring stick... a game that could help shape the program... you want a STATEMENT win.... bring on the big ol bad SEC...
Click to expand...

Wow, we just don't automatically beat Texas...we beat up on them. I'm guessing beating up Texas would be a pretty nice way to end the season.
 


I would prefer Texas Bowl to Gator Bowl as it has higher viewership and we likely have a better chance to win. But at the end if the day I would be happy with anything that wasn't the Heart of Dallas Bowl. That would Suck with a capital S.
 

Bowl Projections

Texas Bowl
Houston – Dec. 27
Big Ten No. 6 vs. Big 12 No. 6

Minnesota vs. Texas Tech

Wouldn't this be something? Just a hate filled rivalry renewed year after year.
 


OK, so I'm not an expert in bowl selection, so pardon my ignorance. The way I read the Daily Gopher article, these bowls have the choice of any bowl eligible team left unselected by a higher bowl. So am I reading this wrong when I say that it didn't matter whether or not we won one of the last two games and finished 5-3 in conference? Couldn't the BWW and Gator Bowls bypass us in any case in favor of Michigan, no matter what our record was?

I know why these games aren't strictly slotted, but it really tends to hold an emerging program down when they can't get arrested, i.e. can get totally ignored by a decent bowl. It sure would be nice if it were a meritocracy.
 

Can bowls trade conference affiliations

Is there any way the Texas bowl could trade with an equal payout bowl say Charlotte or even the Pinstripes bowl in New York City to get us out of going to Houston? Avoiding playing Texas Tech is a must, there will be cricketts and mostly empty seats from both sides in that matchup scenario. I don't care if New York city is cold I would rather go their than Houston. Houston has nothing to do beyond the game. I plan on selling some stock to fund the destination for the bowl so I would like to go somewhere fun where there is going to be a good group of Gopher fans.
 

Bad Gopher said:
OK, so I'm not an expert in bowl selection, so pardon my ignorance. The way I read the Daily Gopher article, these bowls have the choice of any bowl eligible team left unselected by a higher bowl. So am I reading this wrong when I say that it didn't matter whether or not we won one of the last two games and finished 5-3 in conference? Couldn't the BWW and Gator Bowls bypass us in any case in favor of Michigan, no matter what our record was?

I know why these games aren't strictly slotted, but it really tends to hold an emerging program down when they can't get arrested, i.e. can get totally ignored by a decent bowl. It sure would be nice if it were a meritocracy.
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You are correct about the BWW and Gator. The only bowls with "rules" for the B1G are the Rose, Cap One and Outback. The rest can take any bowl-eligible B1G team that's left after those three pick.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
Is there any way the Texas bowl could trade with an equal payout bowl say Charlotte or even the Pinstripes bowl in New York City to get us out of going to Houston? Avoiding playing Texas Tech is a must, there will be cricketts and mostly empty seats from both sides in that matchup scenario. I don't care if New York city is cold I would rather go their than Houston. Houston has nothing to beyond the game. I plan on selling some stock to fund the destination for the bowl so I would like to go somewhere fun.
Click to expand...

Never seen it happen, and I doubt it can happen easily. Contracts and stuff are hard to get out of on short notice.
 

Bad Gopher said:
OK, so I'm not an expert in bowl selection, so pardon my ignorance. The way I read the Daily Gopher article, these bowls have the choice of any bowl eligible team left unselected by a higher bowl. So am I reading this wrong when I say that it didn't matter whether or not we won one of the last two games and finished 5-3 in conference? Couldn't the BWW and Gator Bowls bypass us in any case in favor of Michigan, no matter what our record was?
Click to expand...

The Capital One Bowl and Outback Bowl are the only two Big Ten-affiliated games that are required to adhere to certain criteria. Those games are not allowed to take a team with 2 fewer wins than an eligible team. After the Outback Bowl it is a crapshoot, but in the BCS era, the only time a Big Ten team was passed up for teams with 2 fewer victories was in 2011, when the Insight Bowl (7-5 Iowa), Gator Bowl (6-6 Ohio State) and Texas Bowl (6-6 Northwestern) all declined to invite 9-3 Penn State in the midst of the Sandusky scandal. So....it takes a pretty exceptional case for it to happen.

Bad Gopher said:
I know why these games aren't strictly slotted, but it really tends to hold an emerging program down when they can't get arrested, i.e. can get totally ignored by a decent bowl. It sure would be nice if it were a meritocracy.
Click to expand...

The Big Ten is going to have a much more active role in deciding which teams go to which bowls starting next year. In a story by SI's Stewart Mandel, the idea "is to produce matchups that are geographically sensible, avoid repeat trips by the same program and protect teams with impressive records from slipping farther down the lineup than deserved. Bowls within those pools may still pick in a predetermined order, but the conference will have final approval as to which team goes where." In theory, this will benefit Minnesota. We'll see.
 

Gopher07 said:
Never seen it happen, and I doubt it can happen easily. Contracts and stuff are hard to get out of on short notice.
Click to expand...

Tough to find any straight-up swaps of bowl affiliations without an at-large spot being available, but there are instances of bowl games releasing teams to other bowls. The New Orleans Bowl released its Conference USA affiliation in 2010 to allow UTEP to take an at-large spot in the nearby New Mexico Bowl. The Independence Bowl did not want Air Force for a second straight year in 2011 so they let Air Force go to the Military Bowl and chose at-large Missouri instead.
 

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