The Gophers make a bowl game early Sunday despite a 5-7 record

The Gophers football team qualified for a bowl game at 1:23 a.m. Sunday morning.

Minnesota’s faint bowl hopes rested on the last of the 18 five-win teams to play on Saturday, and Hawaii beat Colorado State 27-24 in Honolulu to give the U the final spot in then 82-team field.

Despite a 28-14 loss to Wisconsin that dropped the Gophers to 5-7 late Saturday afternoon, Minnesota will make a bowl game without reaching the standardsix-win benchmark.

Head coach P.J. Fleck said postgame that if the Gophers are called on for a bowl, they will accept the invitation.

“There is so many beneficial things to a bowl game with practices and development,” Fleck said of the 15 extra practice opportunities with a bowl bid. “And to be honest, we might be our best football team in a month, if we get everybody back (from injuries). … We’ll see. It’s not up to us.”

If there weren’t enough six-win teams, James Madison and Jacksonville State would get the first two available spots based on the NCAA giving the FCS-transitioning teams spots ahead of 5-7 teams. There was a shortage of three six-win teams, and they got the first two spots.

The Gophers will take the third spot based on their high Academic Progress Rate (APR).

“It’s a credit to Jacki Lienesch and Robert Day, our entire academic advisers and academic department,” Fleck said of the U’s APR. “This is why it’s a life program: academically, athletically, socially, serving and giving. It’s because when you get in positions like this, the APR matters.”

In 2015, the Gophers, under interim head coach Tracy Claeys, made a bowl based on their APR and went on to beat Central Michigan in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit.

Gophers athletics director Mark Coyle said pregame Saturday on KFAN that four to five legitimate bowl options had been emerging for Minnesota. Nebraska and Illinois failing to become bowl-eligible this weekend opened up possibilities for Minnesota, he said.

“I can’t tell you how important it is, what our fans are doing the past several years buying tickets to bowl games,” Coyle said. “We’ve got a great reputation that we travel now. I can tell you bowl games have reached out to us asking how many season tickets we’ve sold. … That does help us in the bowl selection process.”

The Gophers will find out their bowl destination next Sunday, after the conference championship games are decided.

If the Gophers go to a bowl game, star safety Tyler Nubin and top tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford said Saturday they would need time to determine if they would play in the bowl. Both have futures in the NFL to keep in mind.