After Showdown Saturday, what's next for the Gophers?
Hunter Johnson #15 of the Northwestern Wildcats is sacked by Antoine Winfield Jr. #11 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the first half at Ryan Field on November 23, 2019 in Evanston, Illinois. ((Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images))
MINNEAPOLIS - It’s rivalry week across the college football landscape, and the University of Minnesota football team will once again be in the national spotlight.
It’s been more than two weeks since the Gophers (10-1) beat then No. 4-ranked Penn State 31-26 in a historic day at TCF Bank Stadium. After that win, Minnesota made the highest jump in the history of the College Football Playoff, improving from No. 17 to No. 8.
The Gophers bounced back from a 23-19 loss at Iowa with a 38-22 win at Northwestern on Saturday, improving to 10-1 on the season and 7-1 in Big Ten play. The Gophers haven’t won 10 games since the 1905 season. On the other side of the Big Ten West, Wisconsin held up its end of the bargain with a 45-24 win over Purdue in the final regular season home game for the Badgers.
It sets up the biggest game in the history of TCF Bank Stadium, since fans rushed the field Nov. 9 after the win over the Nittany Lions.
That win was about Minnesota earning national respect. This week, there’s a whole lot more at stake. The Gophers/Badgers winner takes the Big Ten West Division and will face Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship on Dec. 7 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
A win for the Gophers not only puts them in the Big Ten title game, it keeps them in the College Football Playoff conversation. It also mostly like locks up, at worst, a trip to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. That’s assuming the Gophers get to the Big Ten title game and lose to Ohio State.
The rivalry game with everything on the line, including Paul Bunyan’s Axe, is bringing ESPN’s College GameDay to Minneapolis. That’s right, Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Maria Taylor will be on campus. Herbstreit and Chris Fowler will call the game.
Now that we’ve laid out the scenario of what happens with a Gophers win, what if they lose? For starters, Wisconsin would face Ohio State in the Big Ten title game as the West champion. You can also eliminate the Gophers from the Rose Bowl and College Football Playoff talk.
So what bowl would the Gophers end up in? Win or lose on Saturday, Minnesota is all but guaranteed a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl if it finishes 10-2.
The three remaining options are all warm weather climates, which should make Gopher fans happy on New Year’s Day. They could play in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla., which they last played in 2015 under Jerry Kill in a loss to Missouri. They could be sent to the Outback Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The other possibility is the Sugar Bowl, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
The bottom line is Minnesota is looking to keep Paul Bunyan’s Axe in Minneapolis for the second straight year. The result is a trip to Indianapolis, and Gopher football fans most likely starting to make travel plans to Pasadena.