Goddamn, you'd think Phoenix was ashamed on this game of something. What started in 1989 as the Copper Bowl became the Domino's Pizza Copper Bowl, the Weiser Lock Copper Bowl, and then, by 1996, just the Copper Bowl again. After that, during the dot.com years of the late 90s and early Y2K, it was the Insight.com Bowl (1997–2001) and then the Insight Bowl (2002–2011), before becoming the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl (2012–2013), the Ticket City Cactus Bowl (2015), the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl (2016) and finally just the Cactus Bowl in 2017. Not content with the name changes, it was the Cheez-It Bowl for two years (2018 and 2019) and then the Guaranteed Rate Bowl for four (2020–2023). For the last two years, it's been just Rate Bowl, which based on its history, means it's about to have a rebranding and whole new name soon.
Anyhow, in this Rate Bowl, second of its name, the Minnesota Golden Gophers (7-5) of the Big 10 were 3-point favorites over the New Mexico Lobos (9-3) of the Mountain West. I took the Minnesota as favorites because of their Big10 strength of schedule. To be frank, neither team distinguished themselves on the field, and regulation ended with the teams tied at 14. Minnesota got there with two TDs and New Mexico with two FGs, a TD and a two-point conversion. The game went into overtime.
I needed Minnesota to win by more than three points, so when the Lobos got a FG during their first OT possession, I was hoping the Gophers would settle for a three as well and move on to a second OT, since there's no extra-point kick in overtime in that situation, and a six point scoring play wouldn't cover the spread. But no, Minnesota wouldn't give me that and scored a TD anyway on a 12-yard, third-down pass from the eight, and won the game by three.
Technically, the game was a push with regard to the spread - the three-point favorite won be three, so no one wins the bet and no one loses. From a betting POV, it's as if the game never happened and as if I just wasted three hours of my life. Oh well, at least it wasn't another loss.
The push, along with this afternoon's Northwestern win, put me at 7-10 on the season. One more game to go today, and it's already started. .
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