It isn’t often talked about around here but for a program of Minnesota’s stature it really should be a goal that they not only make a bowl game but that they strive for an upper tier bowl game. A few years ago the Big Ten tiered their bowl arrangements and worked out agreements where they get more discretion as to which teams go to which bowls. Rather than a straight list of bowl priority, they bucketed bowls into tiers and strive to not send the same team to the same destinations frequently.
Thus the upper and second tier bowl games.