Florida projected to play in January bowl game, per ESPN
ESPN’s latest bowl projections have the Florida Gators will playing in the same bowl game, but with different opponents. Both Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach have the Orange and Blue playing in the Reliaquest Bowl. Bonagura has the Gators playing the Minnesota Golden Gophers while Schlabach has Florida playing the Purdue Boilermakers.
Formerly known as the Outback Bowl, the Reliaquest Bowl is currently scheduled to be played on Monday, Jan. 2 in Tampa, Florida, with kickoff set for noon EST.
Minnesota is coming off a 31-3 victory over Northwestern that saw them extend their current win streak to three games. The Gophers started off 4-0 before dropping three straight Big Ten games. Despite being tied with Illinois or the best overall record in the Big Ten West, Minnesota sits in 4th place due to divisional tiebreakers. Illinois, Iowa, and Purdue join Minnesota with a 4-3 conference record.
Purdue is coming off a 31-24 upset win on the road against Illinois. The win snapped a two-game losing streak and gave Purdue control of its own destiny in the division. If they win their remaining games against Northwestern (Home) and Indiana (Away), they will the division and play in their first-ever Big Ten championship game. They have not won a Big Ten conference championship since 2000.
Florida defeated South Carolina on Saturday to bring their record to 6-4, clinching bowl eligibility. They will head to Nashville on Saturday to take on Vanderbilt in their final SEC game of the year. Kickoff is scheduled for noon EST and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
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