After its most successful regular season in over a century, Minnesota is headed to Florida to play in the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day.
The Gophers (10-2), who finished No. 16 in the College Football Playoff Rankings, will face No. 12 Auburn (9-3) at Noon in Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, where the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers play.
KWSN will provide exclusive Sioux Falls area coverage the game on 98.1 FM and 1230-AM.
ESPN will televise the game.
The Gophers were projected to go to the Outback Bowl or Citrus Bowl in most bowl projections, with an outside chance at the Orange Bowl.
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Minnesota’s season peaked at 9-0 on Nov. 9 with a 31-26 win over No. 4 Penn State at home, with a full and joyous field storm ensuing. The Gophers rocketed up to No. 8 in the CFB rankings before losing 23-19 at rival Iowa next week, then lost 38-17 at home to Wisconsin two weeks later.
The SEC’s Tigers had one of the nation’s toughest schedules, beating Oregon (27-21) and Alabama (48-45), who finished No. 6 and No. 13 in the CFB Rankings, respectively. Their three losses came to No. 1 LSU (23-20), No. 5 Georgia (21-14), and No. 9 Florida (24-13).
Gophers writer Andy Greder of the Twin Cities Pioneer Press joins KWSN’s Sports Talk with Craig & John today at 5:20 p.m. to react to the matchup.
Other Big 10 teams in bowl games include:
No. 8 Wisconsin (10-3), who lost to No. 2 Ohio State in Saturday’s Big 10 championship game, is headed to the Rose Bowl to face No. 6 Oregon on Jan. 1 at 4:30 p.m.
The Buckeyes will meet No. 3 Clemson in the College Football Playoff semifinal on Sat., Dec. 29, at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz. The other semifinal pits No. 1 LSU opposite No. 4 Oklahoma in Atlanta’s Peach Bowl that same day at 4 p.m.
No. 14 Michigan will face No. 13 Alabama in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1 at Noon, the same time the Gophers play Auburn.
No. 16 Iowa drew No. 22 USC in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Thursday, Dec. 27 at 7:00.
No. 10 Penn State made the “New Year’s Six” and will square off with No. 17 Memphis, the automatic Group of Five conference representative in the New Year’s Six, at the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1 at 11:00 a.m.
