Has Minnesota Surpassed Wisconsin?

Are we the better program?

  • Yes

    Votes: 58 61.7%

  • No

    Votes: 36 38.3%
  • Total voters
    94
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Ope3 said:
they are playing to 100% capacity in their stadium. With Phil Knight as sugar daddy, that's unlikely to change anytime soon.
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Ope3 said:
Tough to really use attendance as a factor with USC given the much larger metro area, but they are roughly outdrawing the Gophers by 20,000, even though that's about 75% capacity.
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My brother in Christ. Please stop inflating this argument about attendance, it doesn't hold much water. Nebraska was shit for many years and they still sold out every game. Hell, even Tennessee was bad for a good while and they still pulled 100k fans. I hear what you are saying, kinda, but stop acting like attendance numbers are front and center in this debate. Fans in the stands and the product on the field are not always a direct relationship.
 



DrunkDons said:
My brother in Christ. Please stop inflating this argument about attendance, it doesn't hold much water. Nebraska was shit for many years and they still sold out every game. Hell, even Tennessee was bad for a good while and they still pulled 100k fans. I hear what you are saying, kinda, but stop acting like attendance numbers are front and center in this debate.
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I would answer a question about "Has Nebraska Surpassed Minnesota" Poll much differently. But that has not been posed.

Please take note of which way I listed the schools.

I did not say attendance was front and center, but listed it for brevity, because quite frankly the results on the field through this decade/start of the Fleck era are pretty much a wash...especially head to head and conference standings.
 

STPGopher said:
Saint Paul through and through!
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Highland Park - definitely (my nest best before NYC). 🤩

Como Park - maybe 😉

Vadnais Heights - not covered by St. Paul PD, but Ramsey County Sheriff Department🤷‍♂️
 
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SeaBee_Gopher said:
Helmet schools (Notre Dame & Penn State) have been picking off Wisconsin's best in-state players the last couple years so I'm not sure that's Fickell's fault and he is doing a better job recruiting nationally than they usually do.

Fickell's record at Ohio State and WI is going to start hurting him on the recruiting/NIL trail if he doesn't turn things around next year. It is a REALLY big year for their program. Another poster made a good point about him building a great coaching resume when he was at maybe the best program in a weaker conference - Cincinnati. One more bad year and things could go south quickly. National media made a lot out of his amazing resume before coming to the B1G. Guess what? This is the B1G. All the coaches have an amazing resume before coming here.
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All of them except Tim brewster
 



The headline/article in today's Wisconsin Student Paper article may sway some votes:

www.dailycardinal.com

Badgers don’t bother trying against Minnesota, fail to become bowl-eligible

Complete University of Wisconsin-Madison coverage since 1892.
www.dailycardinal.com www.dailycardinal.com

Interesting, Friday was coldest game in Camp Randall since 1964.

uwbadgers.com

Badgers drop season finale to Gophers | Wisconsin Badgers

The Wisconsin football team fell to Minnesota, 24-7, Friday at Camp Randall Stadium to close the 2024 season.
uwbadgers.com uwbadgers.com

Gophers came up short that afternoon, 14-7. Revenge is best served cold.
 


Ope3 said:
The headline/article in today's Wisconsin Student Paper article may sway some votes:


Interesting, Friday was coldest game in Camp Randall since 1964.

uwbadgers.com

Badgers drop season finale to Gophers | Wisconsin Badgers

The Wisconsin football team fell to Minnesota, 24-7, Friday at Camp Randall Stadium to close the 2024 season.
uwbadgers.com uwbadgers.com

Gophers came up short that afternoon, 14-7.
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Ha! They cooled on the game.:ROFLMAO: These tears sure taste sweet!
 

Ope3 said:
The headline/article in today's Wisconsin Student Paper article may sway some votes:

www.dailycardinal.com

Badgers don’t bother trying against Minnesota, fail to become bowl-eligible

Complete University of Wisconsin-Madison coverage since 1892.
www.dailycardinal.com www.dailycardinal.com

Interesting, Friday was coldest game in Camp Randall since 1964.

uwbadgers.com

Badgers drop season finale to Gophers | Wisconsin Badgers

The Wisconsin football team fell to Minnesota, 24-7, Friday at Camp Randall Stadium to close the 2024 season.
uwbadgers.com uwbadgers.com

Gophers came up short that afternoon, 14-7. Revenge is best served cold.
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Hilarious article, love the writer’s sarcasm.

Also the 🍒 on top was -

The first five-game losing streak since 1991., while losing the Axe 🪓
 



Ope3 said:
Just from an attendance standpoint, the Badgers still sold 75,000 tix for every game this season.

Obviously there are constrains with stadium capacity, but The Bank still had 5,000 tix (10%) available for a game against a Top 5 opponent (Penn St) just 2 Saturdays ago on a relatively benign weather day.

For me to even entertain the notion that Minnesota has "surpassed" Wisconsin, the Gophers are going to have to start selling out the Bank much more consistently, especially for Big 10 games. Also, the Badgers would have to drop somewhere into the mid 60,000 range.
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So — to take your line of reasoning a bit farther — would you therefore rate Nebraska as one of the best football programs in the B1G? They have had a boatload of consecutive sellout crowds after all.
 

RememberMurray said:
So — to take your line of reasoning a bit farther — would you therefore rate Nebraska as one of the best football programs in the B1G? They have had a boatload of consecutive sellout crowds after all.
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If we are using attendance as the criterion, Michigan was the best college football team this year. Nebraska #14.
 

Word said:
If we are using attendance as the criterion, Michigan was the best college football team this year. Nebraska #14.
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So is it total number of fans in the stands, then, rather than consecutive sellouts? If so, I guess our football program is... what? 'Permanently handicapped', perhaps, by the smaller seating capacity of our stadium?

So many ways to determine the trajectory of a football program. Confusing.

Alas, I am but a simple man, and I sometimes show a lack of sophistication and nuance. If I'm comparing two football programs, head-to-head on the football field is my only criterion.
 

RememberMurray said:
So is it total number of fans in the stands, then, rather than consecutive sellouts? If so, I guess our football program is... what? 'Permanently handicapped', perhaps, by the smaller seating capacity of our stadium?

So many ways to determine the trajectory of a football program. Confusing.

Alas, I am but a simple man, and I sometimes show a lack of sophistication and nuance. If I'm comparing two football programs, head-to-head on the football field is my only criterion.
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I think you could use several factors to decide which team is "better" but attendance would be waaaay down that list for me.
 

RememberMurray said:
So — to take your line of reasoning a bit farther — would you therefore rate Nebraska as one of the best football programs in the B1G? They have had a boatload of consecutive sellout crowds after all.
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Please see post #67 for further explanation.
 

RememberMurray said:
Alas, I am but a simple man, and I sometimes show a lack of sophistication and nuance. If I'm comparing two football programs, head-to-head on the football field is my only criterion.
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Even head-to-head there is nuance. What's the timeframe?

- This past weekend?
- This decade?
- Fleck era?
- This century?
- Since Barry Alvarez?
- Since Murray Warmath?
- Since Bernie Bierman?
- All time?
 

Ope3 said:
Even head-to-head there is nuance. What's the timeframe?

- This past weekend?
- This decade?
- Fleck era?
- This century?
- Since Barry Alvarez?
- Since Murray Warmath?
- Since Bernie Bierman?
- All time?
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Or the fact that they wear under armour jerseys and we got that swoosh on our shoulders. Not that it actually matters, their jerseys are ugly regardless of branding.
 

The logo on the Badgers helmet makes me wretch.

Close behind is this oh so precious cult like finger symbol.

Screenshot_20241202-191420.png

On second thought, that's even worse. So precious.

DrunkDons said:
Or the fact that they wear under armour jerseys and we got that swoosh on our shoulders. Not that it actually matters, their jerseys are ugly regardless of branding.
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Ope3 said:
Even head-to-head there is nuance. What's the timeframe?

- This past weekend?
- This decade?
- Fleck era?
- This century?
- Since Barry Alvarez?
- Since Murray Warmath?
- Since Bernie Bierman?
- All time?
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You're right. Any of those timeframes would be an interesting comparison.

If you're asking me to pick a timeframe, I'd say that it's mostly about the Fleck era. He's been Minnesota's coach of record for 8 seasons now, and will probably be the Gopher coach for the foreseeable future.

Since taking over at Minnesota Fleck is 4-4 vs. Wisconsin, and has won 3 of the last 4.

That represents a huge change in fortunes in the rivalry. When Fleck was hired, Wisconsin had won 13 straight against the Gophers — an incredibly long and depressing streak for Minnesota fans to ponder. But now, the worm has turned a bit. To my eye, the trajectories of the two teams are pointing in different directions. The Badgers really seem to be floundering.
 


RememberMurray said:
You're right. Any of those timeframes would be an interesting comparison.

If you're asking me to pick a timeframe, I'd say that it's mostly about the Fleck era. He's been Minnesota's coach of record for 8 seasons now, and will probably be the Gopher coach for the foreseeable future.

Since taking over at Minnesota Fleck is 4-4 vs. Wisconsin, and has won 3 of the last 4.

That represents a huge change in fortunes in the rivalry. When Fleck was hired, Wisconsin had won 13 straight against the Gophers — an incredibly long and depressing streak for Minnesota fans to ponder. But now, the worm has turned a bit. To my eye, the trajectories of the two teams are pointing in different directions. The Badgers really seem to be floundering.
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The programs are much closer in stature since Fleck arrived.

No argument there. The record reflects that.

Next task, improving his 1-3 mark against the Badgers in Minneapolis.

Badgers are 1-9 over the past 2 decades in Minneapolis. At least Fleck has the 1.
 

Word said:
I think you could use several factors to decide which team is "better" but attendance would be waaaay down that list for me.
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On a micro level, the 2 teams in the Big 10 Championship are Oregon & Penn St.

Oregon recently traveled to Madison, and the crowd at Camp Randall was over capacity (76,200+).

Penn St recently traveled to Minneapolis, and the crowd at The Bank was 6,000 under capacity (50,800+).

To me that says something about where the Gopher/Badger Football programs are at, with pretty similar W/L records this half decade.

To each their own.
 

Hell, there were posts last offseason about how hot PJs seat should be.

Feels like we're on equal footing with everyone minus the big 4. I'll take that. Means we'll be consistently good with some peaks and valleys thrown in.
 

Ope3 said:
The logo on the Badgers helmet makes me wretch.

Close behind is this oh so precious cult like finger symbol.

View attachment 34897

On second thought, that's even worse. So precious.
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That curvy w thing on their helmet is hideous but I get the w they make with their hands. The only thing I don't get is why would you advertise you are white trash. Go figure.
 


We haven't surpassed the Badgers in coach buyout numbers. PJ's is supposedly $26-27 Million. Fickell's buyout, per a few Badger sources, is in the $40 Million range. The greatest security a HC has nowadays isn't winning, it's his buyout number--except I suppose at few select helmet schools, that, with booster contributions, can easily pay any buyout number.
 

No, we haven’t surpassed Wisconsin. They usually out recruit us and Fickle had a top 20 class last year and is on pace to have another this year. Meanwhile, we’re in the low 40’s. until we can improve our recruiting, we will not pass teams that bring in classes rated more than 10 to 15 places higher than us.
 

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