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Tuesday, December 3
 
Penn State back on New Year's Day
ESPN.com news services

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Minnesota accepted an invitation Tuesday to play in the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl on Dec. 30.

The Golden Gophers (7-5) will play a team from the Southeastern Conference, which should be decided after that league's championship game on Saturday.

This game is the first under a four-year contract pitting the Big Ten against the SEC.

Minnesota has lost four straight games, but it still will make school history with its third bowl game in four seasons. The Golden Gophers played North Carolina State in the Micronpc.com Bowl in 2000 and Oregon in the 1999 Sun Bowl.

In all, five Big Ten teams accepted invitations to play in bowl games on Tuesday:

  • Wisconsin (7-6 overall, 2-6 Big Ten) will meet a Big 12 Conference opponent in the Alamo Bowl Presented by MasterCard on Dec. 28.

  • Purdue (6-6, 4-4) returns to the Wells Fargo Sun Bowl for the second straight year to play a Pac-10 opponent on Dec. 31.

  • Michigan (9-3, 6-2) will play Florida (8-4) at the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day. The Gators have appeared headed to the game in Tampa since Georgia clinched its spot in the Southeastern Conference title game 2½ weeks ago.

  • Penn State (9-3, 5-3) will also match-up against a SEC foe in the Capital One Bowl, also on New Year's Day.

    Big Ten co-champion Ohio State (13-0, 8-0) has already accepted an invitation to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl for the national championship game on Jan. 3.

    Conference co-champion Iowa (11-1, 8-0) will play in a BCS game to be determined after the results of Saturday's games are known.

    Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.


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