Insight Bowl
Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Iowa State Cyclones
December 31, 2009, 5pm Central
Tempe, Arizona
Network: NFL Network

It seems that the departure of Gene Chizik did Iowa State some good. The Cyclones managed just five wins over the last two seasons, but went 6-6 this year. While they only went 3-5 in conference play, things are clearly headed in the right direction.

Both Iowa State and Minnesota are models of inconsistency this season, however. They had trouble stringing drives together on the field, or pulling out multiple wins. Neither has much in the way of offense or defense.

Why are they playing in a bowl game again?

Oh yeah, because there are too many bowl games.

I guess I need to pick a winner, so I’ll say Minnesota 17, Penn State 14. The real loser will be the advertisers on this ratings bomb.