The 2012 Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, the seventh edition of the game, was a post-season American college football

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...

held on December 28, 2012 at

Reliant Stadium NRG Stadium, formerly Reliant Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. Construction was completed in 2002, at a cost of $352 million and has a seating capacity of 72,220. It was the first NFL facility to have a retrac ...

in Houston, Texas as part of the 2012-13 NCAA football bowl season. The game, which was the final game of the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season for both teams, was broadcast at 8 PM CT on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

, and featured the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

from the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

against the

Texas Tech Red Raiders The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Lady Raiders are the athletic teams that represent Texas Tech University, located in Lubbock, Texas. The women's basketball team uses the name Lady Raiders, while the school's other women's teams use the "Red Raider ...

from the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

. The Golden Gophers accepted their invitation after finishing the regular season at six-wins, six-losses, while the Red Raiders accepted their invitation following a campaign during which they totaled seven-wins, five-losses. This was not the first time the Golden Gophers and Red Raiders met in a bowl game; the

two 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...

teams had previously met in the

2006 Insight Bowl The 2006 Insight Bowl, a college football bowl game held on December 29 at Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, pitted the Texas Tech Red Raiders against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. This game is tied f ...

, with the Red Raiders winning 44–41 in overtime.

Teams

Minnesota

The Golden Gophers finished at the bottom of the Big Ten's Legends Division, only posting a 2–6 mark in conference play. However, because of their 6–6 record, the Golden Gophers were bowl eligible for the first time since 2009, accepting a bid to the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas their bid to the game, their first Meineke Car Care Bowl appearance.

Texas Tech

The Red Raiders finished in a tie for fifth place in the Big 12 at 4–5 in conference play, holding tiebreakers ahead of the

TCU Horned Frogs The TCU Horned Frogs are the athletic teams that represent Texas Christian University. The 18 varsity teams participate in NCAA Division I and in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for football, competing mostly in the Big 12 Conference. The sc ...

and

West Virginia Mountaineers The West Virginia Mountaineers are the athletic teams that represent West Virginia University, an American university located in Morgantown, West Virginia. The school is a member of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I. The Mou ...

but behind the Baylor Bears. Soon after Minnesota accepted their invitation, the Red Raiders did the same. Although this was also the Red Raiders' first appearance in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, the Red Raiders played in three previous bowl games in Houston: the 1976 Bluebonnet Bowl, the 2000 Galleryfurniture.com Bowl, and the 2003 Houston Bowl. The Red Raiders' passing attack was the second-best in the country, averaging 362 yards per game.

Game summary

Scoring summary

Statistics

Source:

References

External links

Game summary
at

{{Texas Tech Red Raiders bowl game navbox Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas Texas Bowl Minnesota Golden Gophers football bowl games Texas Tech Red Raiders football bowl games Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas