P.J. Fleck 'really excited' about where Gophers football stands with NIL

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There is still alot of untapped potential at the grass roots level. I still run across alot of Minnesota sports fans who have no idea how the NIL and DInkytown athletes work. And even less information on how to pump money into it such as buying Duck Duck Beer. I did run across a bar that has it on tap and promptly did my civic duty.
 


disco said:
Good article how a school similar to Minnesota is handling NIL successfully. (sorry if this has already been posted here)

sports.yahoo.com

How'd Pat Narduzzi turn around Pitt? NIL cuts, tough conversations and an offensive overhaul. 'S*** I have to clean house'

Pitt is off to its best start in more than 40 years and has one of the nation’s highest-scoring offenses. So what's changed since last year's 3-9 team? Pretty much everything.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com
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Excellent example of how the portal has leveled the playing field. Eli was the eighth best quarterback in the 2023 class and originally went to Alabama.

https://247sports.com/season/2023-f...ings/?InstitutionGroup=HighSchool&Position=QB

Like Minnesota, Pittsburgh had no chance of getting this guy out of high school, but faced with sitting behind Jalen Milroe at Alabama, he decided to transfer someplace else and get some playing time. Not only did this raise Pittsburgh a level, but it reduced Alabama's margin for error. With as erratic as Jalen Milroe has been this year, I'm sure Alabama wishes they had a quarterback of this level behind him to put some pressure on him and provide an alternative if things go bad. Look how huge an impact it had on Ohio State losing their best offensive lineman to injury! There backup LT had no chance against Nebraska. Depth is an issue everywhere now!

Pittsburgh also brought in a new offensive coordinator from FCS that brought a couple good players with him. Unfortunately, this is another example of FCS being hollowed out by the big leagues! Just a few additional game changing players can move a team from average to good. Sounds very similar to Indiana, right? Bring in an excellent quarterback upgrade through the portal and a new coach that brings multiple good players with him! Ohio State had to pay millions for its transfers. It's less expensive to just portal them over mostly "funded" by the opportunity for better visibility.

I wonder how the B1G can better communicate the value of the opportunity to play for the richest league in college football that gets more airtime on TV than anyone except the SEC? I really love the addition of the west coast teams from this perspective. Being able to televise good games with recognizable brands all day AND night on Saturday is currently unique to the B1G!
 


MNVCGUY said:
I feel like the portal/NIL has overall been a positive for Minnesota football and a negative for Minnesota basketball over the past few years.

In football we have seemed to retain the majority of our stars and have brought in some quality players from the portal.

In basketball the results have been much more mixed.
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Not to pile on, but didn't the B1G ruin college hockey too by removing us from the WCHA? Easy road trips to see us play local rivals with some of the best teams nationally. Was the Gopher men's hockey team in better shape financially before this change? Were games better attended then? I'm not as close to Gopher hockey so just wondering.
 


SeaBee_Gopher said:
Not to pile on, but didn't the B1G ruin college hockey too by removing us from the WCHA? Easy road trips to see us play local rivals with some of the best teams nationally. Was the Gopher men's hockey team in better shape financially before this change? Were games better attended then? I'm not as close to Gopher hockey so just wondering.
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Not that connected with hockey so no clue on the financials or any of that but as much as it sucked to lose the WCHA, it makes sense to have a Big Ten Hockey conference now that there are enough teams playing (plus Notre Dame).
 

stocker08 said:
This is 100% true. Trying Spotted Cow for the first time was an even bigger letdown than Nordeast.

Also.......Surly > New Glarus
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I am not a huge fan of Surly...but Fulton is definitely better than New Glarus.
 

SeaBee_Gopher said:
Not to pile on, but didn't the B1G ruin college hockey too by removing us from the WCHA? Easy road trips to see us play local rivals with some of the best teams nationally. Was the Gopher men's hockey team in better shape financially before this change? Were games better attended then? I'm not as close to Gopher hockey so just wondering.
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Interest in Gopher hockey was way down for a few years, but it's generally bounced back. It's not the same as the WCHA days, but it's better than in the first B1G years. Attendance is good again.

Financially, men's hockey lost money last year, but someone here thought it was because the renovation of the arena to make it an NHL-size ice sheet came out of the hockey budget.
 

disco said:
Interest in Gopher hockey was way down for a few years, but it's generally bounced back. It's not the same as the WCHA days, but it's better than in the first B1G years. Attendance is good again.

Financially, men's hockey lost money last year, but someone here thought it was because the renovation of the arena to make it an NHL-size ice sheet came out of the hockey budget.
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I also think what used to be listed as hockey TV revenue is definitely not what it used to be, which was forced by the move to the Big Ten. So hockey "lost" money for the (supposed) greater good of the conference TV package. But the net amount of money we get from the Big Ten is better than what it used to be, so in the end it's a net plus...even though it looks like hockey is losing money.

Hockey used to be on FSN/Bally's pretty much every game of the season and I'm sure they could count that revenue as hockey revenue. Now that has largely gone away due to the Big Ten taking control of things and the falling apart of Bally's.

Not sure if that made sense.
 
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Word said:
I also think what used to be listed as hockey TV revenue is definitely not what it used to be, which was forced by the move to the Big Ten. So hockey "lost" money for the (supposed) greater good of the conference TV package. But the net amount of money we get from the Big Ten is better than what it used to be, so in the end it's a net plus...even though it looks like hockey is losing money.

Hockey used to be on FSN/Bally's pretty much every game of the season and I'm sure they could count that revenue as hockey revenue. Now that has largely gone away due to the Big Ten taking control of things and the falling apart of Bally's.

Not sure if that made sense.
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It makes sense. The other good thing for the team is the ability for season ticket holders to return tickets for resale. Before that, lots of seats went empty even though there was demand.
 

Word said:
I also think what used to be listed as hockey TV revenue is definitely not what it used to be, which was forced by the move to the Big Ten. So hockey "lost" money for the (supposed) greater good of the conference TV package. But the net amount of money we get from the Big Ten is better than what it used to be, so in the end it's a net plus...even though it looks like hockey is losing money.

Hockey used to be on FSN/Bally's pretty much every game of the season and I'm sure they could count that revenue as hockey revenue. Now that has largely gone away due to the Big Ten taking control of things and the falling apart of Bally's.

Not sure if that made sense.
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I'm pretty sure each school get $X million from BTN and can classify it however they want to between sports. Arguably, I bet volleyball draws almost as any viewers as hockey or even Men's basketball these days, at least for MN.
 

SeaBee_Gopher said:
Not to pile on, but didn't the B1G ruin college hockey too by removing us from the WCHA? Easy road trips to see us play local rivals with some of the best teams nationally. Was the Gopher men's hockey team in better shape financially before this change? Were games better attended then? I'm not as close to Gopher hockey so just wondering.
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Def did not ruin college hockey, and on a national level was a win. However, Minnesota lost out big time on its long standing rivalries, and a general disinterest in the program that had forever taken fans for granted. Don Luccia really lost favor towards the back third of his tenure.

Attendance was down for a while, but has been getting much more consistently packed the last few years.

The Gophers are also being more aggressive about scheduling with WCHA historic rivals.

Personally, aside from North Dakota, I don't care a ton about a lot of the old rivalries from the WCHA. From 1997-2002 I cared a lot, but it feels like a lifetime ago now.

Before the WCHA, we had rivalries that we lost too. These things take time to build and simmer and I think overall we will continue to get more invested in the new B1G rivalries. My biggest thing is wanting to see the U restore itself as the premier D1 program in the state, which it had lost to Duluth for almost half a decade imo. Minnesota State Mankato and St. Cloud have both had their moments as well.
 

Five for fighting said:
There is still alot of untapped potential at the grass roots level. I still run across alot of Minnesota sports fans who have no idea how the NIL and DInkytown athletes work. And even less information on how to pump money into it such as buying Duck Duck Beer. I did run across a bar that has it on tap and promptly did my civic duty.
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I feel like the Stadium does a really bad job of promoting anything NIL related.

This could totally be a rules violation, and maybe that's why. I'm sure someone with a smug attitude will be ready to tell me exactly why we can't. But until then, wouldn't it be nice to advertise NIL donations on the big screen occasionally...use a QR code? Or make it extremely clear that Duck Duck is what we should be drinking?
 



Panthadad2 said:
IMO, Oregon comes back to earth once Knight leaves the scene. They have no built-in advantages other than donor money. It's the perfect example of success in the modern NIL/portal era.

The traditional blue bloods like Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Ohio State, have built-in recruiting advantages, fandom and infrastructure that give them more room for error. One would think USC should be in that list too, but it's a classic case of mismanagement on many levels. Still, the blue bloods can no longer stack multiple years of 5-star and high 4-star recruits on the roster like they used to. That's good for everyone else.

On the one hand, I hate the portal because of all the player churn and potential to lose stars every year. On the other hand, it also opens opportunities with good management. I'm torn.
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The portal is a positive in more parity. You have the opportunity every year to improve your team. Most highly recruited freshman don't contribute much the first year or two. Really good portal guys contribute from Day 1.

Fleck has consistently replaced those leaving in the portal with better players.
 






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