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The only way a Gophers team competes with a national championship quality Buckeyes team is if they have a veteran good/great QB, a not one dimensional offense (great OL), and a good defense. And that would only provide a chance. Those kinds of teams do happen to the Gophers, but we knew that this year was not that kind of year. Regarding the lack of parity, yeah, it is what it is. Want things to be different? We would then be talking salary cap.
 

BarnBurner said:
So, to be clear, it is college fans that need to fund their teams. Correct?
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Doesn't matter what I think because whether its directly contributing to a schools collective to pay players or by indirectly watching games on TV which drives demand for those media contracts fans end up paying either way.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Vikes get to NFC title game on average once every 10 years. Gophers have been one win from Conference championship game multiple time in Kill/Fleck era. Very similar profiles. NFL is king.
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The NFC/AFC Championship is by definition the top 4 in the NFL. Being 1 game from the B1G championship game (which was second place in the old West) is at best being top 4 in the B1G (and often not since there were often 2-3 teams in the East ranked higher than the West champ).
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Vikes get to NFC title game on average once every 10 years. Gophers have been one win from Conference championship game multiple time in Kill/Fleck era. Very similar profiles. NFL is king.
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I dont know why the hell people keep comparing the Vikings and Gophers. Comparing the Vikings being a game away from the SB to the Gophers being a game away from a Conference championship is not even remotely close to a similar profile.
 



mngg11 said:
I don't think stats or logic matter to this dude, he's trying to fan flames.
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Go ahead and quote one stat or illogical thing I've said during this discussion that indicates the fanning of flames.
I've been a Gopher football fan for 40 plus years including 16 as a season ticket holder. My question is rooted in frustration and embarrassment. How anyone could have watched that game last night and not felt some of the same embarrassment and frustration is mind boggling to me.
Like I said earlier I didnt expect them to win but I expected more than that.
 

While managing to get the lawn cut here quick before some rain comes through, I realized that I generally am disappointed after our infrequent encounters with the Buckeyes except for that October game 25 years ago. It really is wash, rinse, and repeat for this particular opponent.

I also recalled that as always the sting goes away with a little time. Shall happen this time too.
 

One is
BronkosGhost said:
I dont know why the hell people keep comparing the Vikings and Gophers. Comparing the Vikings being a game away from the SB to the Gophers being a game away from a Conference championship is not even remotely close to a similar profile.
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It’s actually harder for the Gophers to do what people want them to do.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Considering Day is 50-1 against unranked opponents, not many teams can complete from the conference.

Coyle said during pregame interview. tOSU makes more revenue off one home game than MN makes in
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BronkosGhost said:
It just makes a team like OSU harder to beat but I dont think it mattered much last night. Because seriously, Ohio State had been miles ahead of Minnesota and the Big 10 for decades. Sure there's some seasons beating them was more attainable than others but we need to be honest with ourselves.
The disparity is a direct result of the NCAA exploiting college athletics to the point that the players had to sue to rectify it. Like most things in this country they over corrected and they had no plan for NIL. NIL could have possibly leveled the playing field with a salary cap but without one its only getting worse.
Sure part of the responsibility is on fans but how much money do you expect the average fan to pay. I pay $100 a month for a streaming service just so I can watch the Gophers. Once the seasons over I cancel it. Don't even get me started on the cost of a live game.
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Again, I don’t want to focus on the way it was, that time is done and we move on.

Regarding the way it is, the loss to Cal was a disappointment for me, there wasn’t a talent imbalance or an NIL imbalance, that was on coaching.

In this new system (like it or hate it), I think it’s challenging for us to grade our coach in a game where he is at a 10x disadvantage in NIL. Further if we get frustrated, we need to look at our fan base as we are the ones that need to close the gap.

Now you raise a great question, how much per fan is realistic. It’s a great question because, if we are honest we need to recognize that OhSt has a much larger dedicated fan base. They sell out a 100k person stadium every week. At this point, because of this, we need to realize that our dedicated fan base probably won’t be able to pay 10x per capita what OhSt fans pay.

I do have optimism for our fan base, however, since we do live in a metro area and we have a great Fortune 500 corporate base, that once Minnesotans realize they can “buy” a championship team in football (or Hockey), perhaps they will get on board. But even my optimism expects it won’t be in the next two seasons.

Oh and Revenue Sharing, that might help out. Starting this season, but the impacts won’t be felt until next season footballl programs can share revenue with players. Minnesota has $22MM / year across all sports. They will share $15MM with football and the rest with other sports. That being said, every school gets the same ability, and the collectives won’t stop spending their $, so it may just be inflationary.

Thoughts?
 
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Gopherchase said:
Who says we have 3 to 5? I would guess we have more than that.
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That’s a good question, and honestly it’s hard to tell, but

On3 reports this for the top 10.


RankProgramFootball-only spend (est.)
1Texas$38 – 40 M
2Ohio State$35 – 37 M
3Oregon≈ 30 M
4Texas A&M≈ 30 M
5Texas Tech≈ 28 M
6Miami≈ 27 M
7Michigan≈ 22 M
8USC≈ 21 M
9Tennessee≈ 20 M
10Auburn≈ 18 M


But i couldn’t find Gophers total. The source is behind their pay wall. At some point I did come across $3-5MM, but I can’t find the source now.

What I could find is, and the source isn’t behind a pay wall, the average NIL for 2025 commits is:
  • Minnesota is listed as $23,000.
  • Michigan: $245,000
  • Ohio State: $165,000
  • USC: $113,000
Now keep in mind this was just for 2025 commits, OhSt pay to Jeremie Smith isn’t included in this list, and he and many others of their returning Nat Champ team are probably higher paid, but the same goes for many teams.

Here is the link.

On3 B1G rankings of 2025 per player average NIL
 
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BarnBurner said:
And that's why the gaps will never narrow to allow the Mn of the world to win big.

I simply can't support paying for college players.
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That’s fine, I totally get that. That being said, fans can’t blame PJ for that.
 
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MaxyJR1 said:
One is

It’s actually harder for the Gophers to do what people want them to do.
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The Ironic thing is that a Gopher Nat Championship is actually more within the control of the community/ fans than any “professional” sports team. In “professional” sports you can’t fund NIL to win a national title, like the Buckeyes did last year.

If the Twin Cities wants a high profile title, fund the Gopher football like Columbus funds the Buckeyes.

If the Twin Cities wants a dynasty, fund Gophers Hockey with $2-5MM of NIL per year.
 
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DEGopher said:
That’s a good question, and honestly it’s hard to tell, but

On3 reports this for the top 10.


RankProgramFootball-only spend (est.)
1Texas$38 – 40 M
2Ohio State$35 – 37 M
3Oregon≈ 30 M
4Texas A&M≈ 30 M
5Texas Tech≈ 28 M
6Miami≈ 27 M
7Michigan≈ 22 M
8USC≈ 21 M
9Tennessee≈ 20 M
10Auburn≈ 18 M


But i couldn’t find Gophers total. The source is behind their pay wall. At some point I did come across $3-5MM, but I can’t find the source now.

What I could find is, and the source isn’t behind a pay wall, the average NIL for 2025 commits is:
  • Minnesota is listed as $23,000.
  • Michigan: $245,000
  • Ohio State: $165,000
  • USC: $113,000
Now keep in mind this was just for 2025 commits, OhSt pay to Jeremie Smith isn’t included in this list, and he and many others of their returning Nat Champ team are probably higher paid, but the same goes for many teams.

Here is the link.

On3 B1G rankings of 2025 per player average NIL
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These are 100% made up numbers. Maybe the overall gestalt is correct.
 


Here are the reported numbers for the Swarm Collective from 2023. We won’t see 2024 for another few months.

Unless contributions really picked up last year and DE’s numbers for Iowa from On3 are correct the Swarm is writing checks their body can’t cash. I tend to strongly doubt both.


projects.propublica.org

The Swarm Collective Inc - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica

Since 2013, the IRS has released data culled from millions of nonprofit tax filings. Use this database to find organizations and see details like their executive compensation, revenue and expenses, as well as download tax filings going back as far as 2001.
projects.propublica.org
 
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BronkosGhost said:
Go ahead and quote one stat or illogical thing I've said during this discussion that indicates the fanning of flames.
I've been a Gopher football fan for 40 plus years including 16 as a season ticket holder. My question is rooted in frustration and embarrassment. How anyone could have watched that game last night and not felt some of the same embarrassment and frustration is mind boggling to me.
Like I said earlier I didnt expect them to win but I expected more than that. I’ve been a fan for more than 50 years.
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So you’re admitting you weren’t really interested in hearing responses to your question regarding the talent gap with OSU, you just really wanted to vent your frustrations and embarrassment. Fair enough.

I was neither frustrated nor embarrassed after last night’s game—since 1966 the Gophers are 2-42 against OSUU and I don’t believe we’ve been ranked in the top 20/25 during any of those games.

Penn State fans are a different story. Despite being ranked in the top 10 almost every time they play OSU, PSU is riding an 8 game losing streak to OSU—the longest losing streak in the series between the schools.

PSU fans have every right to be frustrated and perhaps embarrassed that they’ve been unable to close the talent gap with OSU.

Us Gopher fans? Not so much.
 

NIL and revenue sharing will begin to level the playing field, just not overnight. No reason that Gophs can't be like Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, etc; or consistently be the 5-7th best team in the B1G.
 

Never is a long time, but the most realistic pathway is if the top X schools in college football break away from the NCAA, form some kind of private entity so that they can make (and/or new law is made allowing for) a collective bargaining with players, a draft into the league, and a hard cap.

So just like the NFL.

If Minnesota would be included in that, it would be for our market, which to me makes some sense and has a chance.

In that case, then yes we'd have as fair a chance as any other team.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
These are 100% made up numbers. Maybe the overall gestalt is correct.
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well, they are suspect for sure, but they aren’t completely made up. They, supposedly come from reporting of collectives, public contracts, interviews etc.. however there is no way the capture everything.

None the less, I think you are probably not off by concluding that this captures the “gist” of it all. I tend to think of it as probably being correct in an order of magnitude and in a relative sense, but certainly not accurate in the absolute sense. I suspect that Texas and OhSt are probably top (maybe Oregon too). The 20-30MM tier is probably a good grouping for a second tier, in that they are above the rest (not Texas and OhSt), but what order, idk.

So, I do agree, the list is probably accurate in the gist of it.
 



This team is young. They have talent but nearly all of their impact players are Freshman, Sophomores, and a few Juniors. They will likely return nearly everyone of importance next season. Ohio St is currently the best team in the country coming off of a national championship. Relax.
 


Pompous Elitist said:
Here are the reported numbers for the Swarm Collective from 2023. We won’t see 2024 for another few months.

Unless contributions really picked up last year and DE’s numbers for Iowa from On3 are correct the Swarm is writing checks their body can’t cash. I tend to strongly doubt both.


[URL . unfurl="true"]https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/882370895[/URL]
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That’s another good data point.

If you go to the On3 data, it shows in 2023 and 2024 Iowa average per commit as $23 and $28k, respectively. 2025 is $46k, double 2023.

I am not sure how that ties out with what this “the swarm” data is showing showing, but it does show that they doubled the 2023 spending.
 
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