Has NIL Helped or Hurt Gopher Football? (4+ years in)

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Young Rowpher

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With NIL money now playing a huge role in recruiting and player retention, I’m wondering if it’s helping or hurting Minnesota in the long run. Fleck’s hinted that we’ll lose players without stronger NIL backing (Phillip Daniels/Bucky Irving), but the Dinkytown Athletes setup seems to be doing some good. Is NIL actually making us more competitive—or just creating another arms race we can’t win? Theoretically if NIL never came about do you believe PJ would have us in a better or worse place in 2025???
 


I think they are in the middle. MN bought a QB in 2024, lost a very good RB a few years ago, and IMO have generally recruited at the same level since Fleck got here. Not bad, not great.

I do think if they had deep pockets they would be better without a doubt.

I think one of their challenges is University funding for assistant coaches and coordinators.
 

Young Rowpher said:
With NIL money now playing a huge role in recruiting and player retention, I’m wondering if it’s helping or hurting Minnesota in the long run. Fleck’s hinted that we’ll lose players without stronger NIL backing (Phillip Daniels/Bucky Irving), but the Dinkytown Athletes setup seems to be doing some good. Is NIL actually making us more competitive—or just creating another arms race we can’t win? Theoretically if NIL never came about do you believe PJ would have us in a better or worse place in 2025???
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Hurting Minnesota Gopher football. An arms race MN has no shot at.
 



Look no further than standings. Have we gone up, down or sideways? I think its the latter. I think that being able to offer some dollars to local kids has kept them home but that benefit is probably offset by not having the resources to attract and retain out state talent.
 

NIL I see as pretty neutral with possible upside for a program like ours, but what I think has been really good for a program like PJ’s is the transfer portal. Lets prospects who don’t end up being great culture fits leave while replacing them with still experienced players that do want to RTB. We don’t really have as many of our best players leaving for more wealthy programs as a result of that culture emphasis (feels like one per year on average) so we’ve definitely been on the plus end of the portal.
 





We are basically in the same tier of the BT as we’ve been for years. Outside factors like NIL and Portal have evened out like GophersInIowa said.

I can’t recall who posted it, (the poster deserves credit) but we are the Toyota Camry of College Football programs. Reliable and steady, I wish we could upgrade our class/tier.

Go Gophers!!
 

Definitely. Seriously though, the portal is where programs like the U will see gains.
 

BleedGopher said:
We are basically in the same tier of the BT as we’ve been for years. Outside factors like NIL and Portal have evened out like GophersInIowa said.

I can’t recall who posted it, (the poster deserves credit) but we are the Toyota Camry of College Football programs. Reliable and steady, I wish we could upgrade our class/tier.

Go Gophers!!
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Probably more of a Corolla, a nice reliable entry level tier. I’d say Iowa is more of a Camry, a slightly more upscale and featured version of us.
 

Eventually, half the team will be transfers - some players at their third or even fourth schools. No loyalty to teams, fellow players, coaches, schools, much less academic majors. The wealthy will buy entire teams and most schools, including Minnesota, will not be able to keep up with the increasing costs of buying and paying athletes. The only remedy is to restore NCAA authority on amateurism via a Congressional law that is approved by the Supreme Court - and the present court, I believe, would approve it to end the cynicism and chaos in college football. Coaches' salaries will keep going up crazily, of course, but at least most of the discipline and tradition will be restored for players.
 



The NIL is inextricably tied to the portal, but they’re different things. In a portal era of free-for-all transfers, NIL has absolutely helped Minnesota IMO. Bucky transferring to Oregon was a drop in the bucket compared to what you’d see without the ability to legitimately pay kids something to stick around. Seems MN is at least somewhat competitive in NIL having been able to keep Taylor, Perich, Ersery, and countless others the past 3 years. I have to think that WITH a portal but WITHOUT the ability to pay NIL, MN would’ve lost more than a few really high impact players to big name programs dangling under the table payments or just straight up prestige.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
Eventually, half the team will be transfers - some players at their third or even fourth schools. No loyalty to teams, fellow players, coaches, schools, much less academic majors. The wealthy will buy entire teams and most schools, including Minnesota, will not be able to keep up with the increasing costs of buying and paying athletes. The only remedy is to restore NCAA authority on amateurism via a Congressional law that is approved by the Supreme Court - and the present court, I believe, would approve it to end the cynicism and chaos in college football. Coaches' salaries will keep going up crazily, of course, but at least most of the discipline and tradition will be restored for players.
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That last sentence is pretty wild.
 

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