What bowl for the Gophers? Experts weigh in with locations, opponents

Sunday morning featured a flurry of bowl projections by experts around the country. Where do they have the Gophers going?

Remember that Minnesota is getting in only because they weren't enough teams with six victorites this season to fill all the spots in the 40 bowl games on the schedule. The Gophers are intent on going, so the question has switched to where they'll end up.

We'll know for sure by late afternoon, but here's a directory of potential landing sports and opponents.

Jerry Palm of CBSsports.com has Minnesota playing Pittsburgh in the Pinstripe Bowl on December 26 at Yankee Stadium.

Both of ESPN's college football experts have the Gophers in the Quick Lane Bowl on December 28 in Detroit, playing either Central Michigan or Pittsburgh.

SB Nation has the Gophers playing Duke in the Quick Lane Bowl.

FOXsports.com has Minnesota playing Central Michigan in the Quick Lane.

SI.com has Minnesota playing Miami (The one in Florida not Ohio) in the Pinstripe Bowl.

USA Today has Minnesota playing Utah State in the Armed Forces Bowl on December 29 in Fort Worth, Tex..

Yahoo! Sports has the Gophers playing Nevada in the Quick Lane.

CollegeSportsMadness has a Minnesota vs. Virginia Tech match-up ion the Quick Lane.

The Orlando Sentinel has Minnesota playing Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl.

And, finally, in case you want to think about how things have changed, Associated Press College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo made his predictions last summer about where the Gophers would land among this year's bowl picture.

Russo had them in a pretty good place -- on New Year's weekend -- against a pretty good team. Well, they were supposed to play a pretty good team, one that had its coach quit midway through and finish with a 3-9 record.

Click here to take a look at how things can change during a college football season.