Can the Gophers find success in the new Big Ten?

[GoDucks349]

Here's the new Oregon Indoor Football facility I believe it's scheduled to be completed in 2024

 

[Spaulding!No!]

My dad says that there was a time when Packer fans couldn’t imagine a winning season….

 

[SHGopher]

The NIL situation in Minnesota is bleak. Everyone knows this is a Vikings town, followed by Twins, followed by...

I am high on the new QB coming in Max Brosmer. Yea, I know some are only "OK" with the signing since he's coming from a lower level of competition.

So I'm positive for next season. There will be losses to the many good teams but should be competitive in them.

Add above average QB play to this current team and the Gophers will compete, assuming the puzzling secondary breakdowns are solved and Gophers have a couple good receivers, maybe need one more.

I had changed my rating for next season from "slaughter schedule" to "competitive schedule."

Big Ten Conference Announces Future Football Schedule Formats for 2024-28

Big Ten Conference Announces Future Football Schedule Formats for 2024-28

bigten.org

 

[FanSinceTheFifties]

No way, I have been told in the new big ten the schedules are a gauntlet every year.

Not sure I agree with this. A 10-2 big ten team is going to be a near lock with the pac 12 and big 12 gutted.
So basically win all the games you should win plus go 1-2 in the games you shouldn’t win and you’re in the playoff.

2025
Buffalo - 1
Bowling Green - 2
Cal - 3
Rutgers - 4
Michigan State - 5
Northwestern - 6
Nebraska - 7
Purdue - 8

Go 2-2 against
Wisconsin
Iowa
Oregon
Ohio state


I

Agree, not ridiculous. I'd expect MSU and Nebraska to be much improved.

 

[FanSinceTheFifties]

My dad says that there was a time when Packer fans couldn’t imagine a winning season….

And there was a time when Packer fans couldn't imagine a loss. But the NFL has a draft that tends to limit dominance and bottomness. The NCAA doesn''t and much of the top talent tends to gravitate to a few, perennial powerhouses.

 

[Some guy]

Agree, not ridiculous. I'd expect MSU and Nebraska to be much improved.

Me too. Need to be pretty good to have 10-2 in play. But not impossible

 

[Panthadad2]

Since 1990 the Ducks are 16-9 vs the current Big 10 teams. Also, Oregon's athletic facilities are ranked the best in the country by 247 Sports. Here's just a sample, this is Hayward Field, the track and field facility. Under Hayward Field it is amazing go to hayward.uoregon.edu to get a real feel for Hayward.

And there's more to come with a new 170,000 sq ft indoor football facility in the works

View attachment 29230

Phil Knight (Nike co-founder) starting giving to the Oregon track team in the 1960s and continued on to other sports and parts of the university. Knight is 85. How long can that giving last?

 

[GopherGod]

Phil Knight (Nike co-founder) starting giving to the Oregon track team in the 1960s and continued on to other sports and parts of the university. Knight is 85. How long can that giving last?

I’m going to guess that the Phil Knight estate whenever he passes will setup Oregon for the rest of our lifetime and beyond

 

[GoDucks349]

Phil Knight (Nike co-founder) starting giving to the Oregon track team in the 1960s and continued on to other sports and parts of the university. Knight is 85. How long can that giving last?

That's a valid question, of course Nike has a lot of Duck alumni in powerful places. For example: The Warsaw Sports Marketing program at the U of O is directly linked to Nike and they do a lot of things together, point is Nike and Oregon are more than Phil and Penny Knight and Oregon.

 

[MplsGopher]

I don't have confidence in the single whale-donor schools like Oregon. It's not sustainable. Oregon has no natural advantages to most BG10 schools without octogenarian Knight in the picture.

You don't think Knight will figure on that and set something up for them? Some kind of annuity with a large principle that pays Oregon $20M a year or something? I'm making it up, but you get the idea.

 

[MplsGopher]

Need to be pretty good to have 10-2 in play.

This year 10-2 or better were the top 12, all P5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_NCAA_Division_I_FBS_football_rankings#CFP_rankings (Week 14 Final)

But five spots will go to conf champs and there is no guarantee that the fifth will be in that top group. So it's not a lock.


2022 same thing, top 12.
2021 the top 17 had 10+ wins.

 

[Out State Gopher]

With the changes past, current & future of college football. Programs & fans must adapt to their new surroundings or suffer the consequences of the Dodo bird. Remember DENIAL is not a river in Egypt. Think outside the box, color outside the lines. Rome fell because of not adapting new technology (not having an E commerce presence). Accept & flourish or deny & wither. What did "who moved my cheese" by Spencer Johnson tell us?

 

[gopherbadgerman]

I’m with you on the new PAC teams except Oregon. They beat Ohio State badly just a couple years ago, recruit really well and have tons of money for NIL from Phil Knight. They might be second to Ohio State on average.

None of the others scare me in their current forms. USC and UCLA have recruiting potential in their area, but have not done much in recent history and Washington hasn’t either except this year with what I think is the best QB in college football, Michael Penix. Their coach is looking better than he is for the same reason Tom Allen did at Indiana when Penix was there and uninjured.

Washington hasn’t done much except this year? They’ve been an excellent program for a decade.

 

[gopherbadgerman]

The NIL situation in Minnesota is bleak. Everyone knows this is a Vikings town, followed by Twins, followed by...

I am high on the new QB coming in Max Brosmer. Yea, I know some are only "OK" with the signing since he's coming from a lower level of competition.

So I'm positive for next season. There will be losses to the many good teams but should be competitive in them.

Add above average QB play to this current team and the Gophers will compete, assuming the puzzling secondary breakdowns are solved and Gophers have a couple good receivers, maybe need one more.

I had changed my rating for next season from "slaughter schedule" to "competitive schedule."

Big Ten Conference Announces Future Football Schedule Formats for 2024-28

Big Ten Conference Announces Future Football Schedule Formats for 2024-28

bigten.org

View attachment 29238

I don’t know if the NIL is as bleak as you say. Compared to who I guess?

 

[MplsGopher]

If the fans you describe as coming on board in 2019 are disappointed in anything less than a 2019-style finish, then I'd say they're probably not long for Gopher fandom anyway

Isn't that what I said??

If you want to bash my head in for using the word decent instead of some other word, that's a semantics argument that I'm not interested in.

The gist of my point is exactly what you're saying here.

We gained fans in 2019. People actually paid attention. Regular people, casual people.

You tell those people "just wait seven years ... stick with us for seven years of seasons that don't get anywhere near as exciting as 2019, and we'll get you another one" .... they're going to respond "LOL".

and they are certainly not being realistic about how college football works.

I see. You get to define that for them.

At the end of the day, it's hard to convert someone into being a diehard fan. It seems almost impossible nowadays with how many options there are for entertainment and how instantly gratifying a lot of them are.

Seems like most current Gopher diehards have been at it for a long time and have found other ways to make it a thing, beyond just if the team wins or not, like taking trips, going tailgating, season tickets and making going to a stadium a fun experience. But those things take a lot of money.

 

[JoeCool]

My dad says that there was a time when Packer fans couldn’t imagine a winning season….

Those were the days, no doubt. Winning and losing have an opportunity to be much more cyclical with the influx of money to cfb. Our time will come.

 

[GoDucks349]

Phil Knight (Nike co-founder) starting giving to the Oregon track team in the 1960s and continued on to other sports and parts of the university. Knight is 85. How long can that giving last?

I don't think Phil Knight was giving to Oregon in the 60s or the 70s. Nike wasn't founded until 1970 (yes it was called "Blue Ribbon Sports" before that). And Nike didn't go public until 1980. I think it was some time after 1980, before Phil started pumping money into the U of O.

I think the first gift to the U of O was the expansion of the Library in 1988. Later came the Knight Law school and more recently the Phil & Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.

 

[Panthadad2]

I don't think Phil Knight was giving to Oregon in the 60s or the 70s. Nike wasn't founded until 1970 (yes it was called "Blue Ribbon Sports" before that). And Nike didn't go public until 1980. I think it was some time after 1980, before Phil started pumping money into the U of O.

I think the first gift to the U of O was the expansion of the Library in 1988. Later came the Knight Law school and more recently the Phil & Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.

I thought Nike/Blue Ribbon sponsored Oregon track athletes like Prefontaine early on before the big gifts to the university.

 

[GoDucks349]

I thought Nike/Blue Ribbon sponsored Oregon track athletes like Prefontaine early on before the big gifts to the university.

You are correct Nike sponsored Steve in 1974 to the tune of $5000. Steve graduated from the University of Oregon in 1973, so this was after he left Oregon. I don't think they sponsored athletes that were enrolled at the University of Oregon.

FYI: I did know Steve on a very casual basis, played pool with him a few times. Didn't hang out with him at all, just happened to be at the same pool table a few times. He did date a woman I knew named Ann (she wasn't in either of the movies about Steve).

 

[JoeCool]

Not sure changing things is how you become more successful. May be how you become less successful. See Iowa vs Wisconsin.

I agree with your skepticism but sadly not sure that’s who we want to look to… regardless I think your point stands.

Being honest here, I hate them and we just beat them, but

Iowa just won the west without an offense.

Wisconsin… lol Jim Leonhard for DC, but kinda shockingly they lowered their ppg allowed from last year and didn’t absolutely sit on the ball on offense like they used to.

 

[Word]

Should just rename Oregon the University of Nike.