ORLANDO -- Buffalo Wild Wings is headquartered in Minneapolis. This is the first year the company has sponsored the Citrus Bowl, and the Gophers somehow landed a spot in it, giving them their first New Year's Day bowl berth since 1962.

Conspiracy buffs might wonder if the Minnesota-based company pulled some strings.

"It's coincidental because we have no role in picking the teams that play in the game," Bob Ruhland, the company's vice president of North American marketing said.

Ruhland works in Minneapolis, but on Tuesday, he was at the Buffalo Wild Wings on International Drive in Orlando, where the Gophers and Missouri held press conferences.

On Dec. 7, when the bowl selections were announced, the Gophers appeared to catch a huge break when Mississippi State jumped ahead of Michigan State in the College Football Playoff rankings. This happened even though neither team played the previous week.

Had they been left in reverse, Michigan State would have gone to the Orange Bowl, which would have precluded the Big Ten from sending a team to the Citrus Bowl. But Michigan State went to the Cotton Bowl, and the Citrus Bowl grabbed the Gophers. Wisconsin would have been another choice, but they played in Orlando last year, when it was called the Capital One Bowl.

"It never really looked as if it was going to be the Gophers," Ruhland said. "It's interesting how all the planets aligned. It's definitely a coincidence, but we're happy with how it turned out. We're totally psyched to have the Gophers get to be in our inaugural year sponsoring this bowl."

ESPN and the conferences are big players when it comes to determining these bowl matchups. The Michigan State/Mississippi State flip prevented the Big Ten from having one bowl eligible team – likely Illinois – miss a bowl game altogether. And it helped the Gophers, too.

Ruhland noted that Buffalo Wild Wings has restaurants in all 50 states. There are 37 locations in Minnesota, and 34 in Missouri. So what result does the company want Thursday?

"We're known as the proud sponsor of overtime," Ruhland said. "So we would love to have an overtime game."