It was a head scratcher this week when the University of Minnesota paid North Carolina $800,000 to buy out of a home-and-home contract with the Tar Heels. Wow, times must be good when you can pay 800k to get out of a couple of games with a team better known for basketball. I have to wonder what the Gopher season ticket holder is thinking; I’m going to shell out some bucks to watch a bunch of mediocre nonconference teams for the next few years.
The Gophers also announced they are playing South Dakota State in 2019. Their future schedule includes the Jackrabbits in 2015 and Indiana State in 2016. Would NDSU fit in 2017 or 2018? Do the Gophers even want to play the Bison after dropping the last two?
It’s a no-win situation for Minnesota in the fact you’re always going to have to fight that recruit-overlooked factor, but I suppose SDSU has kids who can claim that also. I would guess Minneapolis bar and hotel owners would encourage a Bison-Gopher game every year. Even so, here’s the main point: if the Gophers are confident they’re on the right track to building their program, then a quality Big Ten team scheduling NDSU by 2017 or 2018 should be not a question. If not, then we’ve reached another historic level: who would have thought 10 years ago that Minnesota would be evading little ol’ NDSU?
LATE UPDATE: Star Tribune reporting that Minnesota has replaced the open dates created by buying out North Carolina with New Mexico State, one of the worst FBS programs currently. NMSU along with Idaho, will be without a conference home next season when the WAC folds, and much like the Vandals, does not want to drop down to FCS, so they need to schedule 12 independent games. New Mexico State beat Minnesota last year at TCF, the Gophers will travel to Las Cruces in 2013, with a return trip in 2014. There was already a scheduled game between the two set for 2016, meaning New Mexico State will come to Minneapolis three times in six years, that’s more than FIVE teams in the Big Ten. Problem with non-confernece scheduling in my mind.
And the goofs wonder why they are a door mat. Buyout UNC? Ya gotta be kidding me.
Big money maker for Minnesota.
Very disappointing to see the Gophers chicken out against North Carolina. Guess they want to be sure to schedule 4 most likely to win non conference games so they can go 1-7 in the Big Ten and miss a Bowl game that way. Playing the Tar Heels makes them more then likely to lose out to a Bowl by two games instead of one. I lost a lot of respect for the Gopher football program. Your non- conference schedule does not prepare you for the Big Ten the way you schedule now. North Carolina isn’t that scary and you still choose to chicken out. Well, guess Akron or Arkansas State may be interested, probably more of the Gophers speed anyway. Gophers aren’t a Big Ten team… they are just in the Big Ten. Man up and play somebody, I dream of the day the Gophers can go 4-4 in the Big Ten, forget the dang Rose Bowl.
Exactly Teddy, also nice message to their players. Way to show confidence in them, their program is a joke.
Absolutely they are avoiding NDSU. Kill said that after the game and at a gopher golf outing this summer he and AD teague said “we will not be playing NDSU in football again” the feeling i got from them was that Minnesota and NDSU have mutual fans and if Minnesota passes on a D1 local player NDSU will be their choice. NDSU has passed up Minnesota on the football field, no one can dispute that
Kill may have said they weren’t playing NDSU again at a golf outing this summer, but he definitely did not say it after the game. I have every paper after that game, both the Trib and the Pioneer Press, and I listed to his post-game interview and I have his show taped. He said no such thing.
The Bison have dominated the Gophers every time they have played. The Bison have always been the more physical team. The only time the Bison lost to them they dominated the game but didn’t do a good job of scoring TD’s.
The Bison are a better football program the the Gophers by a bunch.
The Gophers wouldn’t finish in the top half of either the MVFC or the Big Sky.
You’re out of your mind! MN is bad but they’d likely finish no lower than 3rd in either the Big Fluffy or the MVFC. Depth alone accounts for much of this. Statistically last years game was a lot closer than the scoreboard. I loved the outcome the last 2 times they played but I don’t feel NDSU dominated start to finish in either of them. I am confused why you wouldn’t get NDSU back to the BANK every chance you get given how many fans have shown up in the past. IN State isn’t going to bring more than 1000 and SDSU won’t bring more than 3-5k.
Despite the closeness of the score, the Bison did dominated from start to finish the 2007 game. I realize yards gained isn’t the ultimate measure of a game, it is a good indicator of how a game went. The Men in Green outgained the Goofs 585 to 307 but the most amazing number is that we had 394 yards rushing in that game. That would be a good rushing total if we were playing some DIII school. In the 2011 game, we outgained the Goofs 336 to 282 but really killed them with those two interceptions. In the 2006 game, we outgained the Goofs 380 to 249 yards and lost on a blocked field goal. We probably should have won all three games. I think what the Goofs really hate is how we have taken over their stadium late in the game.
I think the Gophers would certainly be a playoff team and in contention for the FCS title.
Wouldn’t it be great if North Carolina scheduled the Bison to fill in one of the spots that the Gophers gave up?
The first game was a fluke. The 2nd was a fluke. The 3rd game was a, uh, convincing win. Same with the 2nd game!
Absolutely they are avoiding NDSU. Kill said that after the game and at a gopher golf outing this summer he and AD teague said “we will not be playing NDSU in football again” the feeling i got from them was that Minnesota and NDSU have mutual fans and if Minnesota passes on a D1 local player NDSU will be their choice. NDSU has passed up Minnesota on the football field, no one can dispute that
Wow I never thought in my life I would see the Bison beat the Gophers in football. Now I have lived to see the Gophers avoid the Bison football team. The Bison are the one FCS team that can help fill the stadium down their. But they know right now the Bison have a better football program. I have always been a Gopher fan except when they play the Bison. I agree with Teddy, the Gophers aren’t a Big Ten team they are just in the Big Ten.
I agree with you. Between the statements and subsequent actions of Teague and Kill, I’m getting conflicting impressions: First, that Minnesota is willing to play any competion that results in making the Gophers better prepared for the conference season……but on the other hand, for those teams in regional vacinity of Minneapolis, we’re (Minnesota) not going to pay you a large sum of money to beat us on our home field and then use that game as a way to out-recruit us for common prospects.
Who have the Bison out-recruited the Goofs for? There’s not one player on the Bison roster that had a full Minnesota offer and went with the Bison.
The Bison have a bunch of players Minnesota should have offered: Billy Turner, Marcus Williams, John Crockett, etc.
There’s a big difference between out-recruiting and picking up guys Minnesota didn’t offer.
That’s the point the Gophers didn’t know enough to take these kids. Maybe out-recruit is the wrong word. The Bison coaching staff has been superior to the Gophers in evaluating talent. EIther way it is embarrassing for a Big Ten team to be owned at home by and FCS team and then have to write them a huge check after the game. Go Bison!
I think the Gophers would have gone at least 1-1 against North Carolina, and beating an ACC team is way better than beating New Mexico State. Playing North Carolina would have been sort of like playing Syracuse.
Oh well. I’m glad NDSU’s motto is Bring On The Competition.
If the Gophers were to beat the Bison, it would boost their GPI and Sagarin rankings!
Gophers waste 800K on payout plus they schedule teams that will not sell out their stadium, on top of that they only charge $30 for those games against New Mexico instead of the $50 they could get for playing a home game against North Carolina or NDSU. What a financial fiasco!
Financially the $800K won’t hurt th program when they get an extra home game on the schedule to fill the revenue difference. Home game will bring in around $1.4 million.
Pride wise it is terrible. This program sees that starting off 4-0 is better than ging 2-2 and losing 8 Big Ten games.
Minnesota doesn’t have a FCS opening in their schedule until 2017 and 2018 so at best its five years away. In five years things change and Minnesota could be a top half Big Ten team and NDSU could be a low end FCS program. Funny how fast the past is forgotten.
I’ll give you one of those things is very remotely possible and it’s not MN being a top half big ten team.
It’s funny how quickly the 2008 and 2009 season have been forgotten. NDSU is on top for the moment.
That is because the Bison have a very strong football program with lots of tradition. The fans, coaches, players and administration all expect them to win. You can probably count the bad seasons on one hand for the Bison.
With the Gophers you have to look long and hard to find a good season.
Just listened to a very defensive (not to be confused with apologetic) Jerry Kill on his weekly radio show. He’s caught a lot of heat down here this week for cancelling the NC series. That being said, he is being steadfast in his approach of trying to build his program via 1) wins and 2) home games. Clearly New Mexico State is a game that fits those two requirements better than NC, NDSU, (insert anyone in the top 100 in Sagarin Ratings). Until the NCAA/FBS starts to reward schools for a competitive non-conference schedule, this strategy of playing three or four cupcakes prior to the conference season will continue.
And let’s face it, the reason we Bison fans want to play the Gophers (believe me, I wish NDSU would play down here every year), is because we think we can, and to take it a one step further, should beat them everytime. Obviously those in command over at Gopherville don’t disagree.
Makes sense. You need fans to show up and create a great atmosphere. You want those new fans to enjoy winning and by the time the Big Ten schedule rolls around, the fan base will be energized. Hopefully that rubs off on the team.
You don’t get that when 1/3 of the crowd is cheering against the home team and beating them on the field. Of course when South Dakota beat them, at least a majority of the fans were Gopher fans. Of course they were all chanting “Fire Brewster.” That makes for an INTERESTING atmosphere.
Like I’ve been saying for years. Bison are a above average Big Ten program. This just further proves it. I’m sure they’ll be avoiding us in basketball ad baseball next. Only sport they’ll play us in is volleyball.
Kinda reminds me of how NDSU is too scared to play UND in football
Point well taken but the Goofs saying they will never play NDSU again and NDSU not committing to a alternating home/away game every year are quite different.
Ha! That was too funny! Thanks for the laugh, it made a lousy day much better!!!!
You prankster! LOL!
We are also scared to play that D-1 power house Bemidji State and UND battles them every year in a winter sport.
Does UND have a football team?
Let’s hope you can avoid the basement of the Big Fluff.
Too late…
Good analogy. If the Gophers would schedule two FCS games a year it would be like NDSU scheduling a game against UM-Duluth. It doesn’t make any sense since it would not count towards playoff eligibility or in Minnesota’s case a bowl bid. 2017 and 2018 are the first two seasons NDSU could play Minnesota.
The regional excitement argument for MN playin NDSU is fine but there are also two other FCS schools actually closer geographically than NDSU…UNI and SDSU.
NDSU SDSU and UNI are all within the same 30 miles as far as difference from Minneapolis, and with NDSU fans traveling better than the other two the regional argument makes perfect sense.
Why if the goofers suck so bad do all of you want to play them? Doesnt make sense to me.
You’re right that we sound sort of hypocritical. However, at the end of the day they’re still in our backyard and they’re still a Big Ten school. In general it feels really great to beat a BCS school, it’s an opportunity to take over their tailgating every time we play them, and the stadium is gorgeous – three great draws for (fans like) me.
We’re not scared to play UND. UND’s scared to play us. Gene Taylor plunked down a four-year contract to play back in 2003 and UND said no way. NDSU’s going division one and we’re going to be penalized by playing them if we do. And BTW, division two is where UND’s going to stay because it’s the best fit for UND. Roger Thomas said that. Taylor put a contract on Faison’s desk to play every two or three years and Faison rejected that because it’s not a year-in-year-out contract. Huh? NDSU’s scared to play UND. UND’s the Fighting Cowards in this one. Besides, we’ve moved on. We don’t need UND. UND needs us. UND can’t even fill up the NDSU Grain Quonset-Grand Forks for a Big Sky game. 9,000 some fans at the NAU homecoming game? Really? NDSU can move on from the Gophers too. Someone will be interested in playing us. A big payoff game’s nice and perhaps necessary. I have more faith in Gene Taylor and Craig Bohl to assemble a football schedule for us that’ll be exciting and profitable. We sell out the FargoDome. UND can’t sell out that giant money-sucking black hole called the Alerus Center.
There is also the possibility that the Gophers are helping out a team that is struggling to find games and keep their program afloat right now. The NDSU admin certainly remembers how difficult it was to put together a full schedule as an independent.
There is still some close-knit bonds in college football and this could be one of them. The Gophers are helping out a team that desperately needs help.
Themselves? Gophers saw an opportunity for a win. A win is a win and New Mexico is almost a guranteed win for $800,000 cancellation with UNC.
No matter how hard you want to fight it…NDSU is not a FBS program or team and is not going to get the consistent big game matchups until it is FBS. FCS, like it or not, is Division IAA football or second tier. And yes they are the best second tier team in the country, but still second tier.
Ummm… The Gophers lost to NMSU last year. How does that constitute as a couple automatic wins? Yes, they’re more likely to win those games but there has to be another reason.
It’s a compliment to NDSU that U of M is ducking them for any future fball games. The Bison should just graduate to playing more respected and challenging Big 10 opponents in the future. The Gophers football program is the “special needs kid” in the Big 10 classroom and we can’t have the Bison keep “picking on them.”
1). Please don’t disparage New Mexico by confusing them w/ NMSU , a bottom dweller.
2) The statement that MN made this move in an effort to help an Indepedent FB program is completely laughable. The B1G is selfish to its core, including MN, and wouldn’t know the meaning of selfless deed if it bit them in the a$$. See B1G hockey.
3). If I’m a MN booster, all I can say is wow, sad day! How this is part of a plan to better MN is also laughable. You get to be the best by competing against the best.
Gophers should be honored that NDSU would grace thier stadium since we own it!!
Ndsu needs to move up enough with this easy division
Focus on the Indiana States of FCS before claiming NDSU is ready to move on to FBS.