Gophers Add Future Series With Cal

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per the U:

Gophers Add Future Series With Cal

The University of Minnesota has agreed to an upcoming home-and-home football series with the California Golden Bears.

Minnesota will host Cal on Sept. 16, 2028, and then will visit Berkeley, Calif., on Sept. 1, 2029.

This will be the seventh all-time meeting between the two schools, with Cal holding a 4-2 advantage in the series. The teams last met in 2009 at TCF Bank Stadium and Minnesota's last win in the series was a 32-23 home triumph in 1987.

Minnesota starts the 2020 season on Thursday, Sept. 3 against Florida Atlantic. Season tickets are on sale now.

Go Gophers!!
 

This is a great home and home series. I went to the Gopher game at Cal with Norman Dale and Mrs. Norman Dale when we played there in early 2000's. I have to imagine the stadium has been rennovated since then, but great location.

Go Gophers!!
 

Nice how they can plan a schedule this far out but can't decided game times till the week before!!
 

2009 loss to Cal remains my favorite loss in the TCF Bank Stadium era. My man-crush on Eric Decker was sealed that day. The last time we had a home and home with Cal, it was one of their high water marks and they won both games. Hopefully in 2028-29 it will be the Gophers that are riding high.
 

I like it.

I'm kinda ok with the cupcakes actually but this is fine too.
 





A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I like it.

I'm kinda ok with the cupcakes actually but this is fine too.
Click to expand...

Cupcakes can be fun because you get to see some of the young guys play. It's probably more appealing to people like us (who follow it as closely as we do) than it is most fans. But I am with you, I don't hate the cupcakes.
 




After all of the pissing and moaning we had to put up with about the non-conf schedule, and barely winning those games, the end of year ranking came down to how we did against the quality teams. That’s why some of the helmet schools don’t schedule non-conference games against other powerhouses very often. There’s very little to gain.
 

So, if you're a typical Gopher fan planning for a game in 2029, the first question you have to answer is:
will I still be alive at that point?

Seriously - outside of the real helmet schools, no one can say with absolute certainty how good any program is going to be in 10 years. And that includes the Gophers.

Gophers- Cal in 2029 could be a really good game, or a snoozer. I will be 74 by that year, so I will probably be snoozing one way or another.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
So, if you're a typical Gopher fan planning for a game in 2029, the first question you have to answer is:
will I still be alive at that point?

Seriously - outside of the real helmet schools, no one can say with absolute certainty how good any program is going to be in 10 years. And that includes the Gophers.

Gophers- Cal in 2029 could be a really good game, or a snoozer. I will be 74 by that year, so I will probably be snoozing one way or another.
Click to expand...
This is pretty much what the game will work:

 



Bob_Loblaw said:
Cupcakes can be fun because you get to see some of the young guys play. It's probably more appealing to people like us (who follow it as closely as we do) than it is most fans. But I am with you, I don't hate the cupcakes.
Click to expand...
I might get some backlash for this, but I would prefer we play 3 cupcakes every year. There is way more downside than upside from playing difficult NC games.
 

Gophers1992 said:
I might get some backlash for this, but I would prefer we play 3 cupcakes every year. There is way more downside than upside from playing difficult NC games.
Click to expand...
I think from a tactical standpoint that is absolutely true.

The likelihood of a low SoS biting us in the butt is FAR lower than playing a team that could give you a loss.
 

Dinkytown Don said:
Will we ever get some top tier out of conference opponents?
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No because the U heard all the complaining about playing Auburn in the bowl game and not Northwestern Tennessee School for the Blind...everyone wanted that "sure W to close the year" instead of a true test ???
 

Cincy went 12-0, playing basically nobody the whole year, maybe one or two teams ranked above #15? And got up to #4 in the polls in 2009. I don't think their playing 3 creampuffs in their ooc hurt them in the least, and I also don't think all the fans who ripped on their weak SOS that year bothered them much, either. But they were Cincy, so they got trounced in their bowl game vs Florida.

So with the B1G averaging 5-6 ranked teams every year lately, I see no reason why we should try to schedule losable games in the ooc, especially when half of those have to be played on the road. Better we get goofballs willing to come here for one or both games.

BUT, that said, if we do schedule tougher opponents, I think we should try hard to make sure they are teams that are located places fans would like to visit. So UNLV, Miami maybe, San Diego St, Cal, etc.. :)
 


KillmeNow said:
Cincy went 12-0, playing basically nobody the whole year, maybe one or two teams ranked above #15? And got up to #4 in the polls in 2009. I don't think their playing 3 creampuffs in their ooc hurt them in the least, and I also don't think all the fans who ripped on their weak SOS that year bothered them much, either. But they were Cincy, so they got trounced in their bowl game vs Florida.

So with the B1G averaging 5-6 ranked teams every year lately, I see no reason why we should try to schedule losable games in the ooc, especially when half of those have to be played on the road. Better we get goofballs willing to come here for one or both games.

BUT, that said, if we do schedule tougher opponents, I think we should try hard to make sure they are teams that are located places fans would like to visit. So UNLV, Miami maybe, San Diego St, Cal, etc.. :)
Click to expand...
Not to get too far off topic since this is about a new home and home, I disagree w your take about UC that year. They benefited from some slip ups from other teams. But they earned that spot. How many teams were in the top 15 on the Gophers schedule this year? One more than them?

They played at Pitt, at USF, and scheduled at Oregon St. The home game against WVU likely also gets categorized as a quality win. Think they may have had more quality wins than FL that year as well.

Not sure if you ever saw Tony Pike and Marty Gilyard play, but it was pretty magical. This was before BK went postal on the coaching circut.

Sometimes you come out flat for bowl games. Could be what happened to Auburn this year. It is hard to go from Dec 5 to Jan 1 without playing for anyone.
 

I am all for home and home series with teams like Cal. Power 5 team but one that rarely is dominant. Totally fine with not scheduling powerhouse programs but like the idea of one power 5 non-conf game when possible.

Can totally understand the flip side argument though as well of trying to load up on wins in the non-conf knowing that the conf schedule is going to be tough year in and year out.
 

Gophers1992 said:
I might get some backlash for this, but I would prefer we play 3 cupcakes every year. There is way more downside than upside from playing difficult NC games.
Click to expand...

No no no

I went to that game in Berkeley and it was a great trip. The California, USC and tcu games at tcf were all incredible environments
 


Schnauzer said:
2009 loss to Cal remains my favorite loss in the TCF Bank Stadium era. My man-crush on Eric Decker was sealed that day. The last time we had a home and home with Cal, it was one of their high water marks and they won both games. Hopefully in 2028-29 it will be the Gophers that are riding high.
Click to expand...

I pretty clearly remember this game. It was one of those first years at the Bank. I had little to no expectation to keep up with Cal. I believe they were a Top 10 team at the time and Jahvid Best was a scary good running back. I had to look it up....but he had all FIVE of Cal's TDs.

Considering he was drafted in this first round by the Lions.....I had figured that he was another one of their backs that was mediocre and fizzled out. He only played in two years and had a bad concussion issue that ended his career.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
So, if you're a typical Gopher fan planning for a game in 2029, the first question you have to answer is:
will I still be alive at that point?

Seriously - outside of the real helmet schools, no one can say with absolute certainty how good any program is going to be in 10 years. And that includes the Gophers.

Gophers- Cal in 2029 could be a really good game, or a snoozer. I will be 74 by that year, so I will probably be snoozing one way or another.
Click to expand...

Top tier response.

Follow up question: if you’re alive, do you plan on standing during the game?
 



BleedGopher said:
This is a great home and home series. I went to the Gopher game at Cal with Norman Dale and Mrs. Norman Dale when we played there in early 2000's. I have to imagine the stadium has been rennovated since then, but great location.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
They have a beautiful setting on the mountain side where you can overlook downtown SF across the bay. They plopped a nice big suites/press box on that side of the stadium though, so you can’t ge the view if you’re in the stadium. I guess they wanted people to actually watch the game.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I mean, I'm happy we scheduled a quality opponent in Cal, and it's better than a kick in the teeth - but why couldn't we schedule one of the 10 Pac-12 schools we haven't played in the last decade-plus? A home-and-home with Arizona St. (for example) would have been much better.
Click to expand...
Arizona is the least interesting PAC state, by far. No thanks
 

dpodoll68 said:
I mean, I'm happy we scheduled a quality opponent in Cal, and it's better than a kick in the teeth - but why couldn't we schedule one of the 10 Pac-12 schools we haven't played in the last decade-plus? A home-and-home with Arizona St. (for example) would have been much better.
Click to expand...
I’d love a Washington home and home. We haven’t played them since 1977.
 

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