Fleck is fired up on KFAN

Donate To GopherHole
I admit being a a foul mood when I saw the OP...and bit knowing full well I had no context but needed to vent in my own way.

Now 10 pages of posts later, I'm first to admit this is a tempest in a spittoon but the loss was brutal and yes NIL is definitely a problem for a lot of programs going forward. Both are true.
 

Former Goofer said:
And I'll agree to that!

This is a classic "missing the forest for the trees moment."

The loss absolutely sucks but the bigger picture is what is more important.

The bigger picture is why I am such a fervent supporter of Fleck. Dude has faults which cannot be ignored but when you look at the situation he is in with the resources he has, you'd literally have to find a needle in a haystack to get a coach that is clearly better than him.

Looking at his entire career here at Minnesota and not any single game he has been a huge positive for this club and unless the Gophers get more support we simply wont be able to reach a higher level. It's, unfortunately, that simple.
Click to expand...
I agree with you about PJ. I appreciate what he's done here. In my lifetime he's been the best of the coaches and he's given Gopher fans their best seasons & wins in modern memory. I don't overlook that at all.

I also agree with his NIL take. Without more NIL money & support, we won't be able to keep up. We'll lose the great players we get & we won't attract high-end recruits.

I take issue only with his timing on the remarks. Horrible.

The other thing i take issue with: making the fans responsible for paying the players. That's what NIL really amounts to. From the ultra-wealthy boosters to the common fan without much extra to give, it's all just a nice way of saying the fans need to pay the players more. If that's what college football is now...no thanks.
 

Word said:
The gall of Fleck to ask the team to step into the athletic building hallway to say goodbye and cheer on the womens hockey team on their way to the frozen four. Such an awful thing to do.
Click to expand...
In and of itself, your sarcasm isn't far off. Combined with all the other junk he requires....

Anywho, to round back to the original point, if an NIL player was suspended for not doing this, I'd be upset.

You obviously see it differently. You'd probably have enjoyed being on his team, I'd have hated it. To each their own. :drink:
 

MplsGopher said:
@theTurning we need to get to either conferences or schools paying the players directly. At least then it can be fair. Enough of this scam NIL crap.

NFL players do NIL endorsements but it doesn’t matter because their salary is what matters.
Click to expand...
bingo
 

The new paradigm for a program that's NIL-challenged is to get your best players from the portal, and not expect "original" recruits that blossom to stay. With the NCAA getting tougher on second transfers, this is a sound retention strategy.
 


howeda7 said:
The National Championship game is mostly a boring after-thought to me.
Click to expand...

Me too. School is back up and going in January, most fans are getting into basketball season, and it's played off-campus on a weeknight.

howeda7 said:
At the beginning of every season for at least the last 20 years or so, you could probably pick the national champion out of a group of 5. At most there are 10 that have any realistic chance at it. The other 55 don't. But rivalries/conference tittles/bowls etc. still keep their fans watching.
Click to expand...

One thing I'd add to this, regarding your comment about 5-10. I'd agree that was true, but part of the excitement for me (and some other like-minded fans I've heard from on this board) is that every week there was a chance one of them would fall to some unranked team. That would mess up the polls, maybe ruin said team's chance at the NC, etc. That was very appealing to me because it would always happen, every year. You'd be watching a game and they'd interrupt and point out that #3 USC is losing to unranked blah blah blah and you'd tune in to see if the upset could be pulled off. We're going to lose that with the larger gap between haves and have nots.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
Me too. School is back up and going in January, most fans are getting into basketball season, and it's played off-campus on a weeknight.



One thing I'd add to this, regarding your comment about 5-10. I'd agree that was true, but part of the excitement for me (and some other like-minded fans I've heard from on this board) is that every week there was a chance one of them would fall to some unranked team. That would mess up the polls, maybe ruin said team's chance at the NC, etc. That was very appealing to me because it would always happen, every year. You'd be watching a game and they'd interrupt and point out that #3 USC is losing to unranked blah blah blah and you'd tune in to see if the upset could be pulled off. We're going to lose that with the larger gap between haves and have nots.
Click to expand...
We're also going to lose that with the 12 team play-off. Alabama/Georgia etc. can now lose a game, even two without worry. They're in the play-off with anything other than 3 loss season and maybe even then. The Gophers still have to go undefeated for a shot.
 

Gopherchase said:
With the amount of money the Big Ten will be
pulling in we are the haves and not the have nots. So we lost one kid to Nike money — big deal. Something like that will happen again. Who cares? PJ closed the borders on Minnesota kids this year and has a decent class in place. He has plenty of talent. He and his staff have coached like imbeciles so far this year let’s focus on what the real problem is.
Click to expand...
Actually, starters-wise, Northwestern had more offensive talent and the Gophers had more defensive talent. I imagine that overall it's a wash. Minnesota has averaged 85-86 in 247 ratings I believe, but I'd have to look up the entire data of the whole team to get an actual number. Overall though, Minnesota has been near the bottom of the B1G. The "plenty of talent" comment kinda depends on who Minnesota is playing. Sure, if they're playing a G5 team. But if Minnesota is a playing P5 team... chances are they are lower in the talent rankings. They would need a player average of 88 to break into the top 25 (maybe 87 on a down year).

This doesn't mean that Minnesota can't compete, because the smaller differences don't mean much, there's a lot of variables that the 247 numbers don't account for. But - they simply do not have "plenty of talent" when compared to the BIG.
 
Last edited:

howeda7 said:
We're also going to lose that with the 12 team play-off. Alabama/Georgia etc. can now lose a game, even two without worry. They're in the play-off with anything other than 3 loss season and maybe even then. The Gophers still have to go undefeated for a shot.
Click to expand...
Agree totally. Like last season when Saban lost at the last second to LSU and Tennessee. Before the CFP, his team would have been done for. With the CFP, he was still angling for an "in". With the 12 team playoff, those losses will just be shrugged off.

Kinda like watching Duke/North Carolina in BB. Who cares who wins in the reg season, what matters is how they perform in the dance. The regular season is now just TV fodder to have something live on.
 



Gopherchase said:
With the amount of money the Big Ten will be
pulling in we are the haves and not the have nots. So we lost one kid to Nike money — big deal. Something like that will happen again. Who cares? PJ closed the borders on Minnesota kids this year and has a decent class in place. He has plenty of talent. He and his staff have coached like imbeciles so far this year let’s focus on what the real problem is.
Click to expand...
The schools pull in money, doesn’t mean anyone is giving it out for players.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
In and of itself, your sarcasm isn't far off. Combined with all the other junk he requires....

Anywho, to round back to the original point, if an NIL player was suspended for not doing this, I'd be upset.

You obviously see it differently. You'd probably have enjoyed being on his team, I'd have hated it. To each their own. :drink:
Click to expand...
There's zero evidence a player has been suspended due to something like this. That's why I don't even understand where you're coming from.
 

MplsGopher said:
@theTurning we need to get to either conferences or schools paying the players directly. At least then it can be fair. Enough of this scam NIL crap.

NFL players do NIL endorsements but it doesn’t matter because their salary is what matters.
Click to expand...
At that point its a pro league and we already have that. Direct payments to the players will then end college football.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Thanks for posting it.
Click to expand...
Word said:
The gall of Fleck to ask the team to step into the athletic building hallway to say goodbye and cheer on the womens hockey team on their way to the frozen four. Such an awful thing to do.
Click to expand...
Would be great if some of the guys had wanted to do that on their own. To be ordered as a team activity is beyond silly.
 



Dakota2 said:
Would be great if some of the guys had wanted to do that on their own. To be ordered as a team activity is beyond silly.
Click to expand...
Who said they were ordered? Have you ever been part of a team or school team?

I'm involved in club and high school soccer and we do this kind of stuff for other teams within the club/school. You don't have to order anyone to do it. You just say, hey let's go support our friends and colleagues and decent people just do that stuff willingly.
 
Last edited:





MplsGopher said:
@theTurning we need to get to either conferences or schools paying the players directly. At least then it can be fair. Enough of this scam NIL crap.

NFL players do NIL endorsements but it doesn’t matter because their salary is what matters.
Click to expand...

At least it will be MORE fair than it is now if schools can pay players directly. More players will stick around because, like you said, it will moderate the impact of outside endorsements (NIL). Plus, it will put all those billions in TV contract money to better use than it is now. These schools are making so much money that they don't need, they are literally burning it up to spend it.

I'd rather more goes to the average player putting their bodies on the line for my entertainment then even more unbelievably awesome facilities and higher coaches salaries and God knows what else. I have no interest in contributing to NIL when there is already so much money in the sport just being spent on wasteful things because it can't be spent on the players! I'm not contributing more money to a broken financial model until they fix the model.

People are mad about NIL, but it's here to stay, the interesting question for me is how do things get fixed moving forward. I agree with many of you that college football will probably break more first before it starts to get fixed. Hang on for a wild ride!!!
 



Word said:
Who said they were ordered? Have you ever been part of a team or school team?

I'm involved in club and high school soccer and we do this kind of stuff for other teams within the club/school. You don't have to order anyone to do it. You just say, hey let's go support our friends and colleagues and decent people just do that stuff willingly.
Click to expand...
So if Coach Fleck says “hey, let’s go” do such and such the players have the option to do it or not do it?
 


BilldGopher said:
I admit being a a foul mood when I saw the OP...and bit knowing full well I had no context but needed to vent in my own way.

Now 10 pages of posts later, I'm first to admit this is a tempest in a spittoon but the loss was brutal and yes NIL is definitely a problem for a lot of programs going forward. Both are true.
Click to expand...
You are a true fan! Please keep the positive attitude and have faith the team will become what we all hope for.
 


we need a powerball winner really bad. That's about only way someone has enough money to waste on NIL. I dont like those odds.
 



Pompous Elitist said:
He’s not wrong. Change your best.

Pretty demoralizing week around here. How long until the boo birds make an appearance at games, rock bottom.
Click to expand...
Spare me that. Fans pay money. If the team plays like horseshit and gets booed off the field, too bad.
I always say - this is big time, big money entertainment. If you feel sad because you get booed you should probably not be playing/coaching at this level. Go play NAIA in bumfuck Iowa.
 

fmlizard said:
I didn't read all the previous 10 pages but Minnesota's NIL deficit has to be a matter of priorities vs. ability.

Minnesota is the wealthiest state in the Midwest by household income. (look at all the blue states)

Minnesota makes a lot more money than all the SEC states. The average Minnesotan makes about 40-50% more money than the average Alabaman. This is part of why the Big Ten TV contract is more valuable than the SEC contract.

I realize I'm comparing incomes for average people versus the donor class, but Minnesota also has a much stronger corporate base per capita than any of the SEC states. The Twin Cities have more Fortune 1000 companies than the Miami, Tampa Bay, Orlando, and Jacksonville metro areas put together, but look who has all the NIL.

So why won't Minnesotans shell out for NIL? I get the pro effect - a local corporation will sign a promo deal with Justin Jefferson instead of Chris Autman-Bell, but that doesn't explain all of it.

Is it chicken and egg? The team must win big for wallets to open, but can't win big without the $$?
Click to expand...
Go back and read a few pages. Consensus is that NIL isn't a "big corporation" or "fortune xxxx" deal. It's smaller private capital owned by fanatics, not board rooms of publicly traded companies.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom