After Saturday’s loss to No. 20 Iowa, everyone knew that the Minnesota football team was going to fall in the college football polls. While their fate in the College Football Playoff won’t be decided until Tuesday night, one hint of where they could wind up dropped on Sunday as they ranked 11th in the AP Top 25 poll.
The fall for the 9-1 Gophers doesn’t appear to be too bad here as writers may have taken into consideration where they lost as they haven’t picked up a win in Iowa City since 1999. The loss still stings however as it puts a severe dent into their chances of making the four-team College Football Playoff.
Even with the loss, the Gophers still have an opportunity to make the playoff by running the table. Minnesota will travel to 2-8 Northwestern on Saturday, but will have a tough road after that hosting No. 14 Wisconsin and potentially facing No. 2 Ohio State or No. 9 Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis.
In any event, this could be a precursor of where the Gophers finish in Tuesday’s CFP rankings update. After checking in at seventh in last week’s AP poll, the CFP committee placed the Gophers eighth.
With the CFP poll being the one that actually matters, the Gophers will have to wait until Tuesday to figure out where they stand and try to finish their regular season strong in the final two games.
