The Gophers, as expected, will play in the Rate Bowl on Dec. 26 in Phoenix. Their opponent — New Mexico — came as a surprise Sunday after Iowa State’s players voted to opt out of a bowl game.
Erik Moses, executive director and CEO of the Fiesta Sports Foundation, which runs the Rate Bowl, pointed to a Gophers-Iowa State matchup as being one his selection committee desired. Instead, Minnesota will face New Mexico at 3:30 p.m. Central time Dec. 26 at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The game will be televised on ESPN.
The chance for a Gophers-Iowa State matchup fell through Sunday when Cyclones players, citing “the lack of healthy players to safely practice and play,” voted to not play in a bowl game. Iowa State coach Matt Campbell accepted the Penn State coaching job on Friday, and the Cyclones quickly hired former Washington State and South Dakota State coach Jimmy Rogers as Campbell’s replacement.
Kansas State also chose not to play in a bowl, and the Big 12 fined both Iowa State and Kansas State $500,000 for those decisions.
Moses was flying back from the Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis when he heard about the Big 12 opt-outs. “We had to pivot pretty quickly,” he said, “but we think the pivot was a really good one with New Mexico, and we couldn’t be more excited.”
Moses added that the Gophers (7-5, 5-4 Big Ten) were the Rate Bowl’s target from the beginning. That was good news to coach P.J. Fleck.
“The Gophers are really excited to get back to the desert, that’s for sure,” Fleck said. “As I look outside, we’ve got about 8 inches of snow on the ground. We can’t wait to get out to the sand and cacti.”
This will be the first meeting between the Gophers and New Mexico. The Lobos (9-3, 6-2 Mountain West) finished in a four-way tie for first in the conference and closed the regular season with a six-game winning streak.
