What if NIL/Portal existed when Fleck came to MN?

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jonnyganas

jonnyganas

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I can't remember the radio show or podcast I was listening to, but there was an interesting hypothetical thought experiment:

When Fleck arrived in 2017, what if he had NIL/Tranfer Portal to work with to build the program?

Imagine a better QB than Rhoda or Croft, plus all the WMU transfers coming off a 13-1 season who are already Rowing The Boat. MN was playing in a pretty weak B1G West division.

Would the Gophers have been like the 2024 Indiana Hoosiers?
Would they have played in the B1G Championship game?
 

He kinda did with Morgan following him.

Beyond that it's not like PJ is picking up the top QB transfers anyway ... so not sure that changes.
 

I don’t think the support would have been there and it wouldn’t have made a huge difference.

He may have pulled a couple good players from his old team though.
 

It wouldn't have changed anything. Personally I think PJ is right on schedule. It was going to take 7+ years to turn around a program like this. You need multiple recruiting cycles. Facilities need to be financed and built. Staffs need to be replenished. It takes years to make a program noticeable to national recruits in a real way.

9 years ago, even with NIL and the portal, it would have been the same.
 

It is an interesting question. Fleck coming here was near the backed of the old way of building programs without the benefit of the transfer portal explosion and pay for play money.

I don't think it would have changed a ton other than maybe made it possible get a competant QB ready to play during 2017 as opposed to having to beg Rhoda to come back because Croft was so worthless.
 


Imagine how much NIL money the Gophers would have if they were the only football team competing for fans' money. The Vikings will draw about 500,000 fans at, say 400$ a ticket (ignoring concession $ for now) or about 200MM$. Much of that might have gone to the Gophers' NIL fund.
 

Remember how it took a couple years to get descent NIL? PJ had to keep mentioning it. So I doubt it would have been descent that first year anyway. PJ campaigned to help build it
 

The Gophers are better off from the Portal but worse off from NIL, compared to other P4 programs.

Minnesota and other mid-tier P4 programs are ideal for the portal because they can cherry pick elite players from G5 and FCS schools, get 4 and 5 stars who didn't start right away from the blue bloods, and seldom loses anyone they really wanted to keep except to the Draft.
 




Don’t think it would have gone our way. I think that Gophs have done well at navigating the portal era because the culture PJ has built has ensured that guys buy in. Without a couple years of culture building, I’d be worried that guys would have jumped ship at the first sign of cash.
 

jonnyganas said:
I can't remember the radio show or podcast I was listening to, but there was an interesting hypothetical thought experiment:

When Fleck arrived in 2017, what if he had NIL/Tranfer Portal to work with to build the program?

Imagine a better QB than Rhoda or Croft, plus all the WMU transfers coming off a 13-1 season who are already Rowing The Boat. MN was playing in a pretty weak B1G West division.

Would the Gophers have been like the 2024 Indiana Hoosiers?
Would they have played in the B1G Championship game?
Click to expand...
It would have been a worse transfer exodus most likely. Fleck’s whole program building philosophy at that time was built on the premise of selling kids on a mission/vision when there was no (legal) $ compensation to compete against. Your hypothetical seems to assume that no one else back then would have NIL. If NIL was just starting at that time, the U would have no $ and the OSUs would have bought Winfield and others away.
 

jonnyganas said:
I can't remember the radio show or podcast I was listening to, but there was an interesting hypothetical thought experiment:

When Fleck arrived in 2017, what if he had NIL/Tranfer Portal to work with to build the program?

Imagine a better QB than Rhoda or Croft, plus all the WMU transfers coming off a 13-1 season who are already Rowing The Boat. MN was playing in a pretty weak B1G West division.

Would the Gophers have been like the 2024 Indiana Hoosiers?
Would they have played in the B1G Championship game?
Click to expand...
Fleck has no chance to develop the existing culture we have today and ends up washing out after five years.

I'm a staunch believer that Fleck came in at the best time possible and had the opportunity to spend a number of years creating a program where the culture is endemic and once youre in, you're in until the end in almost every case. If NIL and the free transfer system existed when he came here, he wouldn't have had the ability to create a culture that would stick. The glue of this program, imo, we're all of the players who existed within it when NIL started. That has passed on from class to class and continues to exist today.

Yes, we need NIL to help keep our best players now, but the idea of them sticking around back then would have been far different considering Fleck was fresh in the program and there was no precedent showing that he could win at Minnesota of all places.
 

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