5 Wins Could Be Enough For Gophers To Make A Bowl Game

With a dominating 54-21 win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers Saturday, the Minnesota Golden Gophers (5-5) are one win away from officially clinching bowl-eligibility. But even if they don't win either of their final two games – both of which are against top opponents — head coach P.J. Fleck and the Gophers could still end up in a bowl game.

A team becomes eligible when it acquires at least six regular season wins and finishes with a .500 or higher record. There are currently 59 bowl-eligible teams. The NCAA needs 78 teams to fill all bowl games this year.

If there aren't enough eligible teams, the NCAA can add teams with 5-7 records based on their Academic Progress Rate (APR). Created by the NCAA in 2003, the APR is a team-based metric released annually that measures the academic performance of each student-athlete.

Minnesota has the highest APR among current 5-5 teams and would be the first chosen for a bowl game, reports CBS college football analyst Jerry Palm. Palm's latest projection has the Gophers finishing at 5-7 and playing Stanford in the Foster Farms Bowl Dec. 27 in Santa Clara, California.

Of course, the Gophers could put all bowl doubts to rest with a sixth win against either the Northwestern Wildcats Saturday or the No. 5 Wisconsin Badgers on Nov. 25.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File