The Minnesota Golden Gophers found out their bowl fate earlier on Sunday and at least they will be heading somewhere warm. Minnesota will head to the Rate Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona on December 26th when they will face the New Mexico Lobos at 3:30 PM on ESPN. The game will be played in Chase Field, the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Gophers last played in the Rate Bowl in 2021 when they beat West Virginia 18-6.
The Rate bowl originally was slated to pit a Big Ten opponent against a Big 12 opponent,
but due to a pair of Big 12 teams opting out of bowl games due to late coaching changes and the players voting to just end the season in Kansas State and Iowa State, the conference did not have enough eligible teams to field a representative. Thus, the bowl added New Mexico as Minnesota’s opponent out of the Mountain West.
The Lobos will not be a pushover for Minnesota to face as they look for their 9th consecutive bowl win and to try and go 7-0 in bowls under PJ Fleck. That is the longest active streak in the nation, the longest in Big Ten history and tied for the fourth longest in college football history. New Mexico finished 9-3 on the season and 6-2 in the Mountain West. The Lobos have won six games in a row to close out the regular season. Their three losses on the season were at Michigan in the field game of the season and then at conference opponents Boise State and San Jose State. Head coach Jason Eck is a Wisconsin alum and was rumored to be a potential coaching candidate for the Badgers had they fired Luke Fickell.
The bowl selection is the first for the Lobos since 2016, and it will mark UNM’s first bowl trip outside of Isleta, New Mexico, since 2004, when the Lobos played in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. They went 1-1 against the Big Ten this season after their season opening loss to Michigan they defeated UCLA in the Rose Bowl 35-10.
We will have more on the bowl as December goes on with information on any potential opt outs, players entering the transfer portal, and how the Gophers match up against the Lobos.
