Minnesota Football: Bowl projections after Week 14

The Minnesota Golden Gophers (7-5) did what they could to boost their bowl prospects with a 17-7 rivalry week win over the Wisconsin Badgers (4-8) to close out the regular season.

The Gophers have likely avoided another trip to Detroit, with Northwestern the leading candidate to end up in the Motor City. If I had to guess, Las Vegas and Nashville are at the top of Minnesota’s list of preferred destinations, but the prognosticators seem to think the Gophers should start packing their bags for the Bronx.

But Minnesota played in the Pinstripe Bowl as recently as 2022, and we know that the Pinstripe Bowl favors teams with which they don’t have recent history. So I could see a return to the Rate Bowl instead.

For now, here are the latest bowl projections:

ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura: Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl (Dec. 27; Bronx, NY) vs. Duke

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach: Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl (Dec. 27; Bronx, NY) vs. Pittsburgh

The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman: GameAbove Sports Bowl (Dec. 26; Detroit, MI) vs. Western Michigan

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm: Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl (Dec. 27; Bronx, NY) vs. Duke

Sports Illustrated’s Bryan Fischer: Rate Bowl (Dec. 26; Phoenix, AZ) vs. TCU

Athlon Sports: Music City Bowl (Dec. 30; Nashville, TN) vs. LSU