Gophers bowl game is 4th-worst, but gifts for players are 4th-best

SBNation.com ranked the 40 bowl games in terms of the gifts players get. And the Quick Lane Bowl came in No. 4

December 10, 2015 at 11:18PM
(Howard Sinker/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

By almost any measure, the Gophers are not going to a good bowl game this year. Online rankings being what they are — subjective clickbait in many cases — those who rank the Quick Lane Bowl 37th out of the 40 bowl games this year, as ESPN.com did, are certainly not wrong. (Being worse than the Popeyes Bahamas Bowl is not a good thing).

A different ranking, though, puts the game in the upper echelon. SBNation.com ranked the 40 games in terms of the gifts players get. And the Quick Lane Bowl came in No. 4 on their list.

The site has rundown of what all the bowl games are offering, and I have to say the folks in Detroit stepped up. The fellas from the Gophers and Central Michigan will get:

JBL headphones; custom-made, life-sized decal for each player with his likeness; hoodie, winter hat, baseball cap; Ogio backpack; vintage football; $200 Best Buy gift card.

Probably my favorite part about all of this is that the Quick Lane Bowl official Twitter account (yes, it exists) touted the gifts and the SB Nation rankings with a tweet and link with the words, "Hey @GopherFootball and @CMU_Football, will these gifts work?"

Come for the mediocre bowl game; stay for the headphones?

about the writer

about the writer

Michael Rand

Columnist / Reporter

Michael Rand is the Minnesota Star Tribune's Digital Sports Senior Writer and host/creator of the Daily Delivery podcast. In 25 years covering Minnesota sports at the Minnesota Star Tribune, he has seen just about everything (except, of course, a Vikings Super Bowl).

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