Every year, players regularly choose not to play in bowl games, some wary of injuries affecting their pro prospects, others leaving for another school or sitting out after a coaching change.

Entire teams even opt out.

Minnesota still finds plenty of reasons to embrace the bowl experience, even when the chase for a national championship ended long before the postseason starts.

The Gophers are pretty good at it, too, heading into Friday’s Rate Bowl against New Mexico on an eight-game bowl winning streak. That’s the FBS’ longest active streak, the longest ever by a Big Ten Conference team and fourth-longest in college football history, three behind Florida State’s record of 11 from 1985-95.

“Our players take the bowl games very, very seriously. They love football, and they want to play football,” said coach P.J. Fleck, who is 6-0 in bowl games and in his ninth season with the Gophers. “We take a lot of pride in developing that type of mindset here at the University of Minnesota. I just respect the game wholeheartedly. You want to coach players who respect the game.”

The majority of bowl games this century have long been second-tier events, and the advent of the 12-team College Football Playoff has further cemented that status. The constant December upheaval around the game with coaching staff changes and transfer-portal entries has made the bowls even more of an afterthought.

But not if the Gophers can help it.

“It’s just another opportunity to spend another month with the guys, and travel, and go to a cool place, spend some time together and celebrate the season that we put together,” Minnesota linebacker Maverick Baranowski said. “All the bowls have been a blast so far.”

New Mexico has gone through three coaches and eight seasons since its last bowl appearance, in the 2016 New Mexico Bowl.

The Lobos appear to be on the rise in their first season under coach Jason Eck.

Picked to finish 11th in the 12-team Mountain West Conference, New Mexico won nine games for the second time since 2008 and closed the season on a six-game winning streak — the longest since 1997.

The Lobos set a school record for total offense at 484.5 yards per game and their defense is allowing 113.4 yards rushing per game, nearly 100 yards less than last season.

“We’ve been able to break down some walls and break down some barriers for the University of New Mexico that they haven’t been able to do for a while,” Eck said.

Drake Lindsey had a solid debut at quarterback in place of Max Brosmer, now with the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent.

The 6-foot-5 redshirt freshman ranked in the middle of the pack in most passing statistics in the 18-team Big Ten, but he had six touchdown passes and two rushing scores without a turnover over the final six games.

It would have been easy for Lindsey to opt out of the bowl game, but he wasn’t having any of it.

“When you have relationships with the coaches that are so good, and they’re continuing to pour into me, pour into the players around me, it’s an easy decision,” he said.

Sports Writer Dave Campbell in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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