Fleck is fired up on KFAN







Think about what it likely means for you to be a big money donor to Gopher football:

1) you're old enough to be in charge or own a very successful business
2) you're a fan of football (IE, what I'm getting at is you aren't some newbie tech millionaire ... then you're some nerd who doesn't give a crap about football)
3) you probably were an undergrad at the U, at the latest, in the 60's when Gopher football was nationally relevant.


How many of those kinds of folks are even around, right now? You'd probably be well into your 80's?
 


It's pretty gross when the head coach of a college football team has to go on the radio and urge people to make donations to a 3rd party so he can pay his players. They might as well go ahead and remove the "C" from NCAA. It's no longer applicable.
Why is it gross? Do you want to root for a winning team or not?
 

He's on right now.

Says we are going to be a AAA club for somebody else if we can't get some NIL money.
It's one way to avoid having to talk about Saturday's 4th quarter.

Lets just move down now and get it over with. fighting it out with the bottom of the B1G is of no interest to me. I hope others feel the same.
 



It sucks. Were lucky because were in the B1G and will be getting paid for being on the bottom half of the conference but will never have any security in our ability to recruit and keep high performing players. I'm sure DJack and Taylor will be getting tempting offers after the season. A college scholarship doesn't quite mean as much to these valuable players.
 


Then we're going to be AAA.

There are no big money donors for Gopher football.

Name one. Denny Sanford?? Chased him off.
There are plenty of wealthy alumni, just none who care to sink millions into sports I guess. And they were smart to chase Denny off, wouldn't want to be associated with him now. Yikes.
 

It sucks. Were lucky because were in the B1G and will be getting paid for being on the bottom half of the conference but will never have any security in our ability to recruit and keep high performing players. I'm sure DJack and Taylor will be getting tempting offers after the season. A college scholarship doesn't quite mean as much to these valuable players.
At this point I'd write off football and just take the huge payday and spend on basketball and hockey. Just put out a collection of 85 walk-ons and lose big while getting PAID.
 




I think the idea is that he shouldn't have to ask? Kinda like Ben shouldn't have to give out free TVs on the superblock?
Administration and Faculty would like to block that and not even let him have a craft and bake sale to raise funds.
 



Where are we moving to?
I'd like to see us compete with NDSU, SDSU and the like. Those would be nice rivalry games, the road trips would be easier, etc. And we could actually win something. But that would require dropping down in other sports are well, except hockey. We'd need to keep that up. But I'd be fine with even the basketball teams moving down significant levels.
 

I think the idea is that he shouldn't have to ask? Kinda like Ben shouldn't have to give out free TVs on the superblock?
Correct. I guess it's not expected of him, but I think it's gross that he has to go out and beg for money to try and keep players he already got to commit.
 

It sucks. Were lucky because were in the B1G and will be getting paid for being on the bottom half of the conference but will never have any security in our ability to recruit and keep high performing players. I'm sure DJack and Taylor will be getting tempting offers after the season. A college scholarship doesn't quite mean as much to these valuable players.
We’re going to be like Vanderbilt once the super conference forms. Cool the university makes money, but why do fans care? Are we supposed to tune in every Saturday while we dream of cracking like top 6 in the conference? You’ll have to essentially be a national title contender just to sniff the conference title.
 

I'd like to see us compete with NDSU, SDSU and the like. Those would be nice rivalry games, the road trips would be easier, etc. And we could actually win something. But that would require dropping down in other sports are well, except hockey. We'd need to keep that up. But I'd be fine with even the basketball teams moving down significant levels.
So St. Thomas is going to to go the Big East and the U is going to take their place? Pass.
 

Why is it gross? Do you want to root for a winning team or not?

If you’re asking me to pay kids to play football at a University then no I will just root for the losing program.

I think there are a lot of fans like me who could afford donations and choose not to because it’s gross to pay a middle man to turn around and give money to kids.

That comes with living in a state where priorities are better aligned than a lot of areas where college football is worshipped. Honestly dog you don’t want to live in places like Oxford or Fayetteville or such.
 


I'd like to see us compete with NDSU, SDSU and the like. Those would be nice rivalry games, the road trips would be easier, etc. And we could actually win something. But that would require dropping down in other sports are well, except hockey. We'd need to keep that up. But I'd be fine with even the basketball teams moving down significant levels.
The bolded statement makes no sense.

1. Only Football has the sub-tier of FCS. The Dakota schools are all division one in every sport. Same D1 as the B1G and the SEC. They get to go to March Madness and have. There's no dropping down in other sports.

2. Except hockey? What are you even talking about? The Gophers remaining in the B1G for hockey like Notre Dame?
 

We're one year away from the start of an 18-team conference, with at least 8 of those schools (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, USC, Wisconsin, Iowa, Washington, and Oregon, and a case could be made for UCLA) having experienced sustained success over the last 30 years (and much longer in several cases). We're already destined to be at a AAA level in our own conference! If the definition of success is playing your way into the top 10 in the conference every few years, that's pretty bleak. I'm not convinced that changes, even with a robust NIL program.
 


What was the context? Trying to blame the loss on not having NIL money?
 

If you’re asking me to pay kids to play football at a University then no I will just root for the losing program.

I think there are a lot of fans like me who could afford donations and choose not to because it’s gross to pay a middle man to turn around and give money to kids.

That comes with living in a state where priorities are better aligned than a lot of areas where college football is worshipped. Honestly dog you don’t want to live in places like Oxford or Fayetteville or such.
Then you're naive, because what you describe has been happening for 50-60 years or more. People deify John Wooden, but he had a bag man just like all the others.
Difference is, it's all in the open now.

This is big time, big money entertainment and I'm in the camp that you do whatever it takes to win. Period. End of story.

Columbus and Ann Arbor aren't Oxford or Fayetteville. Neither are Eugene or Austin. Not every big time football program is in some southern backwater.
 

What was the context? Trying to blame the loss on not having NIL money?
After talking about Darius Taylor, Fleck basically implied he's not going to be here next year. He then said they had a guy who used to play here, that's doing well someplace else because they couldn't afford to pay him (Irving, of course).
 

Kinda interesting (or pathetic) for Fleck to bring up NIL this week of all weeks.

Galling after that abomination of a 4th quarter in Evanston, which has absolutely zero to do with NIL.

Without hearing the segment (which I hope will be made available to listen to) this was my reaction as well. Now, if he was baited into the question that's one thing, but this isn't the week to bring up NIL.

That being said, I do agree that NIL poses a very big threat to us and I don't think it's getting enough local attention. I have a buddy that is a moderate to high level NIL donor for TN Vols and he laughs that we are trying to raise $250K at a time. Granted, TN is in the belly of the beast at this level.

But Coyle doesn't have a vision for this at all, and some will point to the Fortune 500 companies we have here, but that is not where NIL dollars come from. Coylel's response to this was a year after NIL really took off, he appointed Jeremiah Carter into the liaison role. Carter, while a former Gopher, came from Compliance, so he's inherently trained to mitigate risk That's not bold thinking on Coyle's part.

The ability to compete with NIL money will be as important for coaches as the facilities arms race that we worked so hard to just get our head above water.

Go Gophers!!
 
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