There’s remains a chance the Gophers finish with a 5-7 record and still go to a bowl game.

If Minnesota loses to Wisconsin in the Battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe on Saturday, the U will be one win shy of reaching bowl eligibility. But there might not be enough eligible teams this season.

As of Saturday morning, there were 69 bowl-eligible teams for 82 available spots. That leaves 13 openings for 18 teams sitting on five wins.

Of those 18 teams, 12 are betting favorites. The Gophers are among six underdogs; the Badgers are favored by three points.

If the Gophers finish in the pack of five-win teams, they would get bowl berths after James Madison and Jacksonville St. Those two programs have won more than six games, but are transitioning for FCS and the NCAA has only made them eligible for postseason play if there aren’t enough six win teams. They would go to the front of the line over any five-win team.

The next criteria for five-win teams is a program’s Academic Progress Rate (APR).

The Gophers’ APR would put them at the top of the list for current five-win teams. But if Wake Forest beats Syracuse to get to five wins on Saturday, the Demon Deacons are the only team capable leapfrogging Minnesota to the front of the APR list.

With a Wake win, the Gophers would then go to No. 2 on the APR list and No. 4 on the overall list.

But if Minnesota beats Wisconsin, none of this will matter and the U will get to six wins and head to a bowl game on their own accord.

Five on it

Here are Saturday’s games for five-win teams:

(Five-win team vs. their opponent)

Gophers vs. Wisconsin
Northern Illinois vs. Kent State
Syracuse vs. Wake Forest
Rice vs. Florida Atlantic
Navy vs. Southern Methodist
Old Dominion vs. Georgia State
Louisiana vs. Louisiana Monroe
Brigham Young vs. Oklahoma State
Illinois over Northwestern
Virginia Tech vs. Virginia
Marshall vs. Arkansas State
Florida vs. Florida State
South Florida vs. Charlotte
Washington State vs. Washington
Cal vs. UCLA
South Carolina vs. Clemson
Colorado State vs. Hawaii
Central Florida vs. Houston

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