The Rate Bowl played at Chase Field each December is typically a Big Ten versus Big 12 matchup, but this year is a little different.
The coaching carousel around college football has led to several big-name programs opting out of bowl games, which played a role in the Rate Bowl matching up the Big 12’s Minnesota Golden Gophers against the Mountain West’s New Mexico Lobos.
“We thought we were going to have Iowa State versus Minnesota,” Fiesta Sports Foundation executive director Erik Moses told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Thursday.
“Which would’ve been super cool, but Iowa State lost their coach to Penn State. Things started to trickle from there. So Iowa State and Kansas State both declined bowl invitations this year. So we ended up, thankfully and luckily, with New Mexico.”
This will be the first bowl game at Chase Field without a Big 12 competitor since 2019, when Air Force defeated Washington State.
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The Cyclones lost head coach Matt Campbell to Penn State, and the players voted against playing another game as the program moves forward. The Big 12 fined both Iowa State and Kansas State $500,000 for skipping out on a bowl game despite qualifying.
Notre Dame also opted out of a bowl game after missing out on the College Football Playoff.
“It’s definitely a concern,” Moses said. “When you talk to athletic directors and even conference commissioners, they want these teams have an opportunity to end their seasons with a postseason game. That said, they also understand that there are some real challenges and impediments to that, including opt-outs, whether that’s players or now coach movement that is causing teams to feel rudderless and not necessarily all that confident about going into a bowl game without their coach.
“We focus a lot on the player movement, but the coach movement is pretty significant as well. I don’t know that there’s a way to limit that, but I love that some coaches are coaching their current teams through the postseason, then moving on to their new jobs.”
In steps New Mexico, a 9-3 program that has played two games against Big Ten teams already. The Lobos lost to then-No. 14 Michigan to open the year, and they crushed UCLA to cap nonconference play.
New Mexico enters the postseason on a six-game winning streak, led by first-year head coach Jason Eck. His program has not played in a bowl game since 2016, drawing further buzz from fans looking forward to seeing it compete on this stage.
“They’re fired up, had the highest increase in home attendance in FBS at 57%,” Moses said. “Their coach issued a challenge to the Lobos fans. He was like, ‘I need 10,000 people in Phoenix for this game.’ And I said, ‘Amen.'”
The Golden Gophers went 7-5 in 2025, and they return to Chase Field for the first time since 2021. Minnesota has won eight straight bowl games.
The Rate Bowl is on Dec. 26 at 2:30 p.m. MST on ESPN and ESPN 620 AM.
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