The Minnesota Gophers football program may not be playing this fall, but the AP Top 25 Poll still has them ranked. Nine of the 25 teams that made the original top 25 were in the Big Ten or Pac-12, including the No. 2 team in the nation in Ohio State.
The Gophers were listed as the No. 19 ranked team, after a 2019 season where they won the Outback Bowl and finished 10th overall in the AP Top 25 Poll.
Rashod Bateman, a likely first-round draft pick, declared before the season was postponed that he would opt out of the 2020 season and declare for the draft. This would have been a big blow to the Gopher’s offense, especially after losing Tyler Johnson to the 2020 NFL Draft.
P.J. Fleck has brought with him to Minnesota an excitement level that hasn’t circulated the Gophers football program in many years. Fans will have to wait until at least the spring to see how his team builds off one of their most exciting seasons in many years.
There is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the 2020 college football season, but as of now the other three Power Five conferences are set on playing in the fall. It will be interesting to see how the NCAA works around this, with the conferences not playing in the fall still looking into a spring season.