Chip Scoggins column: Undo bad fit -- bid farewell to Maturi

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I understand "revenue sports" and that more people like football than anything else. But I also understand volleyball, wrestling, women's hockey, track and field, etc. etc. Overall, the Gophers are darn competitive.
 

sunnyday2 said:
I understand "revenue sports" and that more people like football than anything else. But I also understand volleyball, wrestling, women's hockey, track and field, etc. etc. Overall, the Gophers are darn competitive.
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+1


Football aside, we are very competitive. Joel Maturi has made a positive impact on a lot of the programs, and he has put all his time and effort into his job. Also, he finally made the right hire for football. Cut Maturi some slack.
 


RoyalGopher said:
+1


Football aside, we are very competitive. Joel Maturi has made a positive impact on a lot of the programs, and he has put all his time and effort into his job. Also, he finally made the right hire for football. Cut Maturi some slack.
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Really? We've won nothing in football or basketball during Maturi's tenure. To not win a single NCAA tournament game over an entire decade is a huge black mark on his resume. Maybe my definition of competitive is different than yours, but to not contend for even one conference title in a sport over an entire decade means that you are not competitive. Therefore, the Gophers have not been competitive in either major sport during Maturi's tenure. If Minnesota has the same advantages in Hockey that a school like Florida or Texas has in football, then I would say the hockey program has also performed very badly during Maturi's tenure. To say he "finally made the right hire for football" seems like an incredibly strange comment: Maturi talked as if he was going to bring a major coach to the University of Minnesota then struck out on much smaller names before hiring a 50 year old MAC coach with health problems who has had zero experience at the BCS level. To call Jerry Kill the right hire after what we have seen to this point boggles my mind, but then again so does the idea that Maturi should be "cut some slack".
 


EG#9 said:
Really? We've won nothing in football or basketball during Maturi's tenure. To not win a single NCAA tournament game over an entire decade is a huge black mark on his resume. Maybe my definition of competitive is different than yours, but to not contend for even one conference title in a sport over an entire decade means that you are not competitive. Therefore, the Gophers have not been competitive in either major sport during Maturi's tenure. If Minnesota has the same advantages in Hockey that a school like Florida or Texas has in football, then I would say the hockey program has also performed very badly during Maturi's tenure. To say he "finally made the right hire for football" seems like an incredibly strange comment: Maturi talked as if he was going to bring a major coach to the University of Minnesota then struck out on much smaller names before hiring a 50 year old MAC coach with health problems who has had zero experience at the BCS level. To call Jerry Kill the right hire after what we have seen to this point boggles my mind, but then again so does the idea that Maturi should be "cut some slack".
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Non-revenue sports are competitive.
 

EG#9 said:
Really? We've won nothing in football or basketball during Maturi's tenure. To not win a single NCAA tournament game over an entire decade is a huge black mark on his resume. Maybe my definition of competitive is different than yours, but to not contend for even one conference title in a sport over an entire decade means that you are not competitive. Therefore, the Gophers have not been competitive in either major sport during Maturi's tenure. If Minnesota has the same advantages in Hockey that a school like Florida or Texas has in football, then I would say the hockey program has also performed very badly during Maturi's tenure. To say he "finally made the right hire for football" seems like an incredibly strange comment: Maturi talked as if he was going to bring a major coach to the University of Minnesota then struck out on much smaller names before hiring a 50 year old MAC coach with health problems who has had zero experience at the BCS level. To call Jerry Kill the right hire after what we have seen to this point boggles my mind, but then again so does the idea that Maturi should be "cut some slack".
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This! Maturi deserves no slack at all. Nice guy and all...
 

zambam said:
Non-revenue sports are competitive.
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It sad when our sport teams have come down to celebrating non-revenue sports. I know players on those teams, and I do congratulate them they work extremely hard.

But lets be honest - all of their fan bases combined don't equal the base for the revenue sports. Maturi would be great as an AD for a division 3 school that is all about equality, but not here.
 

RoyalGopher said:
+1


Football aside, we are very competitive. Joel Maturi has made a positive impact on a lot of the programs, and he has put all his time and effort into his job. Also, he finally made the right hire for football. Cut Maturi some slack.
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Sorry, that's not the way it works. Also, minor sports with great coaches tend to excel no matter who the AD is. The wrestling program is good because of J Robinson. It was good before Maturi and it will be good after him. Maturi has very little to do with it. Same with John Anderson and baseball. I'd hardly go out of my way patting Joel on the back for either of those programs. To be fair, he is slaving away on the baseball stadium that was promised in 2001. I hear the blue prints are fantastic!
 



EG#9 said:
Really? We've won nothing in football or basketball during Maturi's tenure. To not win a single NCAA tournament game over an entire decade is a huge black mark on his resume. Maybe my definition of competitive is different than yours, but to not contend for even one conference title in a sport over an entire decade means that you are not competitive. Therefore, the Gophers have not been competitive in either major sport during Maturi's tenure. If Minnesota has the same advantages in Hockey that a school like Florida or Texas has in football, then I would say the hockey program has also performed very badly during Maturi's tenure. To say he "finally made the right hire for football" seems like an incredibly strange comment: Maturi talked as if he was going to bring a major coach to the University of Minnesota then struck out on much smaller names before hiring a 50 year old MAC coach with health problems who has had zero experience at the BCS level. To call Jerry Kill the right hire after what we have seen to this point boggles my mind, but then again so does the idea that Maturi should be "cut some slack".
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+1. No matter how Kill turns out, Joel butchered the process once again.
 

Joel

Whenever the book is finished on Joel, the thing I will be most appreciative of his tenure is that he was in charge when U2 played on campus.
 

Minnesota has a massive leg-up in non revenue sports since we're the only Division 1 school in a large state. With partial scholarships the norm in the lesser sports, people tend to stay at the home school since it's cheaper.
 

howeda7 said:
Sorry, that's not the way it works. Also, minor sports with great coaches tend to excel no matter who the AD is. The wrestling program is good because of J Robinson. It was good before Maturi and it will be good after him. Maturi has very little to do with it. Same with John Anderson and baseball. I'd hardly go out of my way patting Joel on the back for either of those programs. To be fair, he is slaving away on the baseball stadium that was promised in 2001. I hear the blue prints are fantastic!
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Don't forget Volleyball. Chris Voeltz hired Herbert.
 



captain.hindsight said:
It sad when our sport teams have come down to celebrating non-revenue sports. I know players on those teams, and I do congratulate them they work extremely hard.

But lets be honest - all of their fan bases combined don't equal the base for the revenue sports. Maturi would be great as an AD for a division 3 school that is all about equality, but not here.
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Non revenue sports are great and have shown some great success but keep in mind they are funded by the three renvenue sports.

Without success of revenue sports(this includes wins and loses which lead to financial success) there would not be any non revenue sports.
 

Lets hope that the first thing the potential new AD does is eliminate the seat re-suffle for basketball.
 

MotherNight said:
Lets hope that the first thing the potential new AD does is eliminate the seat re-shuffle for basketball.
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Respectfully, I just can't see that happening. That's not something you change gears on 95% of the way into it. They're committed.

What I'm interested in is, how long is the re-seating good for before they do it again? How many years? That's the one thing I haven't been able to get an answer from from the Gopher Points people when I've talked to them. I think MSU re-seats about every 5 years. Will the U re-shuffle the deck (using Gopher Points) in approximately another 5 years, too?
 

MotherNight said:
Lets hope that the first thing the potential new AD does is eliminate the seat re-suffle for basketball.
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If they have a good season, they won't. If they have a repeat of last year, they may not have a choice.
 


SelectionSunday said:
I'm curious Howeda, what would you define as a good season?
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In general, making the NCAA's for this year. For the purposes of their seating plan, it might be good to win a game. No one seems happy about this and having won an NCAA game (or better yet 2) this century would make it an easier sell.

A Sweet 16 season, I think it goes off OK, because people will be excited. Another train-wreck and I think The Barn will be a sad place in 2012/13 if they push on with it.
 

Sound reasoning, I agree. Some combination of 11-7 or better, top 3-5 finish in the B1G and at least 1 win in NCAAs would certainly provide a jolt for the Gopher hoops fan base. With the re-seating thing on its way, this would be an apt time for the Gophers to have a good season. Perhaps as importantly, show legit hope for a better future with some of our newcomers.
 

good bye Joel

I am not confident that any new quality AD will be interested in this position. The New AD will have very little ability to put his stamp on the program, for at least 7-years due to Jerry Kills contract extension....looks as if the mediocrity will be with us for a long time........
 

SelectionSunday said:
Respectfully, I just can't see that happening. That's not something you change gears on 95% of the way into it. They're committed.

What I'm interested in is, how long is the re-seating good for before they do it again? How many years? That's the one thing I haven't been able to get an answer from from the Gopher Points people when I've talked to them. I think MSU re-seats about every 5 years. Will the U re-shuffle the deck (using Gopher Points) in approximately another 5 years, too?
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Yuck, I hadn't even thought of a second re-shuffle. My Twins season tickets have been far less of a headache for a better team (besides this year). I think my price per ticket went up a dollar from last year and I don't have to keep track of some goofy point system.

How can anyone agree to this without a more definite idea of the future of their tickets? That's the sort of thing I hope will be a little more clear under a different AD, but it's a chronic problem in college sports in general. It's like the U is a money making machine or a university depending on which suits it better on a situational basis.
 

zambam said:
Non-revenue sports are competitive.
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non-revenue sports don't pay the bills. why can't some of you get that through your heads?!

you have to be doing well, mostly especially in football and men's basketball, on a fairly routine basis in order for the non-revenue TAKERS to continue to suck from the evergiving "teet" of the revenue producing sports (football, basketball and men's hockey).
 

MotherNight said:
Yuck, I hadn't even thought of a second re-shuffle. My Twins season tickets have been far less of a headache for a better team (besides this year). I think my price per ticket went up a dollar from last year and I don't have to keep track of some goofy point system.

How can anyone agree to this without a more definite idea of the future of their tickets? That's the sort of thing I hope will be a little more clear under a different AD, but it's a chronic problem in college sports in general. It's like the U is a money making machine or a university depending on which suits it better on a situational basis.
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why do some of you insist on comparing professional sport finance structures to that of a university sports finance structure? they are to completely different beasts. it makes absolutely no sense and thus the cheap shots at the U of M are unwarranted.

p.s. i would say the twins have been a major dissappointment over the last decade. never doing what it took to get over the top. just a bunch of over-glorified division winners considering 8 teams out of 30 make it to the playoffs each season. we dropped our twins season tickets and now only purchase gopher football and gopher men's basketball seasona tickets. done with the twins....done with the pohlads.....done with bill smith and ron gardenhire.

the twins front office and their ticket scheme are the real rip-off artists if there is one.
 

supadupafly said:
non-revenue sports don't pay the bills. why can't some of you get that through your heads?!
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And why can't some of you get it through your heads that as a major university we should have about this amount of non-revenue sports. You might want to look up the part about providing opportunities for as many students as possible and the part about the value of athletics in a university program. You also might want to compare what is offered here to other schools. You can nitpick, but we're about in the middle. This part comes from administration, regents, and faculty, and isn't about the A.D. It's amazing that people think if we just drop a couple of sports like gymnastics and baseball, we'll be on our way to gridiron success. It's about getting lucky with hiring the right coach, getting some breaks, and starting to build some momentum to get out of this pit.
 

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