Fleck is fired up on KFAN

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GopherTheJugular said:
Tangentially. If I'm paying a mil for a player, I'd expect him to be held to less of a standard then the other players who I didn't need to fund in order to keep them here.
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You can expect whatever you like, I just don't think there are any coaches who would want you involved in their program if that was really your expectation.
 

I finally got a chance to listen back to the interview. When he mentions "there's a guy that should still be here" (Irving), there's a very nervous chuckle from Grim/Gaard. PJ carries on and says, "We all laugh about it..." and you can hear a lady in the background say, "I'm not laughing." Well, break open that pocketbook, ma'am.
 
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kisarazu said:
I so much want to agree with this, but I'm afraid I cannot.

If there are any Twins fans on this board, how many of them have wanted the Pohlads to open their checkbook? When the payrolls are the same, you get parity, when the payrolls are different, you get the Yankees.

Edit: I'm not saying that the Gophers need to become the Yankees. I'm saying if fans want yearly top 25 finishes and winning the conference, then outside of parity, the program will need top 25 $.
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The Yankees have won their 5 team division twice in the last 10 years.
And nobody has more money than the Yankees.
Sure, you need some money but we are in the Big Ten. We got money. It takes more than just money. You need the right people.
 

Disagree @disco

TAF stated goal is to help build facilities. In that sense, they're akin to a traditional booster group. None of the money goes directly to any student-athlete. Indirect benefits of having better facilities.

That's not NIL.
 

Listened to it too.

Fleck is as serious as anything I've heard him talk about. Deadly serious. He was trying to get the word out. Sounded like a call for help. Was absolutely not making a joke, even if Gaard and Grimm tried to play it off as that.


You can say tone deaf to bring it up after a terrible loss, but really in the context of it -- in Fleck's sometimes rambling way -- it had nothing to do with talking about why they lost. The context of it was a question that got to why did DT carry the ball so many times. Fleck was heaping praise on him.

(Eventually got to that other backs were "banged up". Different topic for a different thread, not sure if he was just referring to Bryce Williams, or also Tyler and/or Evans.)

Basically saying you'd be crazy not to play him. Feels foolish for not playing him vs Neb. Freshman of the week three weeks in a row. ETC.

Then brings up -- all but says -- he's not going to be here next year if we don't get him more NIL.


To me, and this is a wild guess, but this feels like Fleck was told something by so and so. An aunt, family member, or maybe even DT himself, don't know. But something like "hey coach look ... we love the Gophers, appreciate everything so far ... but we're getting offers for $500k. How can we say no???" Wild guessing

This kid is special.



If I was Fleck, my play would be loyalty and asking him for one more year, before he goes off to get the payday. Give us one more year, to develop you further and get you in the best possible position to contribute at the next level. Carries at Mich, Ohio St, SEC, etc. aren't guaranteed. They will be here next year.
 

Interesting quote re: facilities. From this article.

www.theringer.com

Nothing—Not Even Congress—Is Stopping the NIL Era

The NIL era isn’t going away, mainly because we’ve always been in some form of it. But even appeals for congressional oversight aren’t likely to alter the system in the way the NCAA wants.
www.theringer.com www.theringer.com

Maryland coach Mike Locksley, whose school recently saw massive facilities upgrades that it thought would help recruiting, gave the line of the offseason to The Athletic about the shifting priorities: “Unfortunately, we moved in at a time when facilities have been de-emphasized in a recruit’s mind. Because they’d get dressed in the trash can for $25,000.” Locksley is right, and so are the athletes who view it like this.
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MplsGopher said:
To me, and this is a wild guess, but this feels like Fleck was told something by so and so. An aunt, family member, or maybe even DT himself, don't know. But something like "hey coach look ... we love the Gophers, appreciate everything so far ... but we're getting offers for $500k. How can we say no???"
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I agree 100%. He's been contacted.
 

disco said:
I agree 100%. He's been contacted.
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And unfortunately nobody will have the balls to publicly call out the team/entity doing the contacting which is exactly why it is able to happen in the first place.

It is a shame for college football that the players/families/teams have all become obsessed with the money....not surprising....but a shame.
 

MNVCGUY said:
And unfortunately nobody will have the balls to publicly call out the team/entity doing the contacting which is exactly why it is able to happen in the first place.

It is a shame for college football that the players/families/teams have all become obsessed with the money....not surprising....but a shame.
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It's entirely possible that Minnesota/Fleck doesn't know who's contacted him.
But if I'm Fleck and the kid says he's leaving. Yeah, I run him 40 times a game out of spite.
 

beating the dead horse - the only way that any controls are imposed on this will be through national legislation. the NCAA is unwilling or unable to police FBS football.

in a perfect world, the NCAA would have a robust enforcement division, and any school caught tampering with a player on another team's roster would face penalties including loss of scholarships, limits on official visits, etc. but that is never going to happen given the current state of the NCAA.

with all due respect to Dinkytown Athletes, that level of 'legal' NIL is not the issue. kids aren't jumping schools for 10-grand. the issue is Rich Uncle Pennybags handing out 6-figure bags of cash to players if they attend Directional State.

the only way - in the current climate - for MN to counter that is to get their own Rich Dude with his own bags of cash. The Gophers need someone who has Glen Taylor levels of $$$$ - and is willing to part with some of that $$$ to buy players for the Gophers.

BTW - a top Gopher hockey commit just flipped to one of the Boston schools. rumors of $$$ being a factor.
 



The current NIL environment and the looming expansion of the Big Ten into a super conference next year has me really depressed about the future of Gopher athletics. I can see my interest slipping away as we get further and further from fielding competitive teams in the major sports. When I was in school the men's basketball teams went to a Sweet 16 and was a Kevin Lynch miss from the Final Four. The hockey team lost the national championship game when Randy Skarda rang the post in OT. And even the football team was mostly competitive, with .500 or better finishes in conference 3 times, and they beat #2 Michigan. Unless there are significant rules around NIL governance put in place, I just can't see that happening for us again, and that really sucks.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
beating the dead horse - the only way that any controls are imposed on this will be through national legislation. the NCAA is unwilling or unable to police FBS football.

in a perfect world, the NCAA would have a robust enforcement division, and any school caught tampering with a player on another team's roster would face penalties including loss of scholarships, limits on official visits, etc. but that is never going to happen given the current state of the NCAA.

with all due respect to Dinkytown Athletes, that level of 'legal' NIL is not the issue. kids aren't jumping schools for 10-grand. the issue is Rich Uncle Pennybags handing out 6-figure bags of cash to players if they attend Directional State.

the only way - in the current climate - for MN to counter that is to get their own Rich Dude with his own bags of cash. The Gophers need someone who has Glen Taylor levels of $$$$ - and is willing to part with some of that $$$ to buy players for the Gophers.

BTW - a top Gopher hockey commit just flipped to one of the Boston schools. rumors of $$$ being a factor.
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Hockey is a little different for several reasons. There are a very limited number of D1 hockey schools. There are a lot of different avenues other than college to continue playing. The NHL can and will poach kids at the drop of a puck, even in-season.

I would say the most likely things along these lines we'll see with hockey are:

The Pegulas, who bought Penn St. an arena and funded them going D1 (thereby upsetting and ruining college hockey forever) paying a shitload in NIL for PSU. They own the Sabres and the Bills - they have billions.

One of those tiny, super expensive rich kid schools out east having some old money Smedly Costington IV type alumni buying players for his alma mater.
 

Also, it's not that they can't or won't enforce rules. It's that they have absolutely no teeth.

The colleges have basically said to the NCAA when they try to enforce something "What are you going to do about it? Nothing!" Nobody is forcing anyone to be a NCAA member - they choose to be. And if a bunch of big football schools decide to become the wild west and break away they can do it.
 

60's Guy said:
The Yankees have won their 5 team division twice in the last 10 years.
And nobody has more money than the Yankees.
Sure, you need some money but we are in the Big Ten. We got money. It takes more than just money. You need the right people.
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Right, my focus was more on the fact that they have won many many World Series. The mlb changed to revenue sharing in 1996, and that has helped the small markets. Baseball still has money problems. I like the most recent changes this year, but that's for a different forum.

www.blessyouboys.com

MLB’s revenue sharing problem, and how to solve it

Shared revenues should be limited to player salaries and restore the incentive to win
www.blessyouboys.com www.blessyouboys.com

In addition: Pro sports have the luxury of a draft and then keeping those drafted players on their roster for many years. CFB rosters average a 20% change every year. Pro sports help cheap payrolls keep young players until they become unrestricted FA. This buys them time to have cheap talent, perhaps get a leaner deal done, or trade for more cheap talent. CFB has no such measures to help smaller markets. Thus - Minnesota doesn't have enough money.
 
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FredCoxRocks said:
...and go back to the rule of sitting out a year after transferring.

I know that will never happen, not anymore...but, just a thought.
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disco said:
It's entirely possible that Minnesota/Fleck doesn't know who's contacted him.
But if I'm Fleck and the kid says he's leaving. Yeah, I run him 40 times a game out of spite.
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Is that why he did that with our RBs in previous years?
 


Once players know the team is not in contention the bench will be alluring. Save it for the next team/payor
 

SamSquatch said:
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.
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Knoxville is the shit...
 


Shouldn’t the very fact that so many of us are concerned about NIL give us hope it will get figured out? Does it really help TV if 80% of their current audience loses interest because their team has no chance? Well, we already had no chance because our recruiting base would never be good enough, but even less of a chance? We have A LOT of other entertainment options!!!

The way things existed before NIL, we were very much like the Twins vs. Yankees, but because of recruiting imbalances instead of money. I don’t think TV execs will want it to get worse.

I think players eventually become employees, just like coaches, and can then get paid through overall athletic department revenues. Assuming TV revenue continues to be divided equally by conference or maybe even nationally, that provides a large base to provide some financial parity. Maybe not all revenue is shared equally like NIL, etc., so you, once again, end up with the Twins-Yankees model.

If not, I’ll just start focusing my entertainment dollars on something else. In any case, I’m glad the players can now get paid. It’s a mess right now, but that was an injustice.
 

Gopher pull tabs in every bar, sold right next to the new Gopher beer tap. Boom.

Heck, figure out how do a Gopher meat raffle in every northland bar and the players would be rich beyond their imaginations. :)
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
A couple other posters have summarized the comments well, but here's the link for those who are interested. This discussion happened between 28-29 minutes

www.iheart.com

Gopher Football Weekly with PJ Fleck - The Common Man Progrum | iHeart

Gopher Football Weekly with PJ Fleck
www.iheart.com www.iheart.com
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I listened to some of it. Never mind the NIL talk, what piqued my interest was Fleck talking about the third and two on the last series before the punt. Darius has (paraphrasing) “got to learn to stick it into the B gap” rather than bounce it outside? What are you smoking PJ, that was DOA. Plugged up. DT made a valiant attempt to make something out of nothing. Everyone and their grandmother, cousins, uncles, aunts saw it coming. Mo Ibrahim himself, maybe even the Green Line, Shake and Bake, DT, LM, would have lost a yard the way it transpired.
 

The Iowa Meat Association (or whatever the F it is) sponsoring Iowa State, because that's the Ag school in that state.

The U is the Ag school in this state. We should automatically get the same deal???
 

@Pompous Elitist check out 18:30 mark in this video


The right, what I would call A gap between Boe and Lewis, is open. But their LB #34 fills it immediately. So you never know, but probably would've got stuffed short if he tried to go up that, and guessing that's what DT saw.
 

SeaBee_Gopher said:
Shouldn’t the very fact that so many of us are concerned about NIL give us hope it will get figured out? Does it really help TV if 80% of their current audience loses interest because their team has no chance?
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History says this won't happen. People will literally watch almost any college football game on TV. This is why there are so many bowl games and why they get better ratings than the Stanley Cup finals.

The way things existed before NIL, we were very much like the Twins vs. Yankees, but because of recruiting imbalances instead of money. I don’t think TV execs will want it to get worse.
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It was also about money and paying players. Always. It just wasn't in the open.
 

MplsGopher said:
The Iowa Meat Association (or whatever the F it is) sponsoring Iowa State, because that's the Ag school in that state.

The U is the Ag school in this state. We should automatically get the same deal???
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I would guess that the agricultural promotion groups in Iowa have a much higher affinity for the Iowa ag school than their counterparts in Minnesota.
 

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