Trojan Wire: The Minnesota Golden Gophers are the Big Ten equivalent of what Cal was to the Pac-12.

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per Matt:

The Minnesota Golden Gophers are the Big Ten equivalent of what Cal was to the Pac-12. They have the longest Rose Bowl drought of any long-term Big Ten football member school. We define “long-term” as preceding Penn State’s arrival to the Big Ten in the 1990s. Penn State, then Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland, are comparatively “late” joiners to the conference, followed by the four recent arrivals from the West, including USC. That’s how we have the 18-team conference which starts something new for the Big Ten in 2024. We at Trojans Wire will spend the 2024 season working with our College Wire colleagues at the websites whose teams are joining USC in moving to the Big Ten: Ducks Wire, UW Huskies Wire, and UCLA Wire. Our Big Ten football roundtable is predicting the records for all 18 Big Ten football teams. We predict, as a panel of college football observers, how well Minnesota football will do this season under coach P.J. Fleck, who flourished in 2019 and almost got the Gophers to the Rose Bowl, but whose boat is now going against the tide in Minneapolis.

ZAC NEEL, DUCKS WIRE — MINNESOTA GOES 5-7​

DON SMALLEY, DUCKS WIRE — MINNESOTA GOES 7-5​

ROMAN TOMASHOFF, UW HUSKIES WIRE — MINNESOTA GOES 5-7​

MATT WADLEIGH, UCLA WIRE — MINNESOTA GOES 4-8​

MATT ZEMEK, TROJANS WIRE -- MINNESOTA GOES 4-8​


trojanswire.usatoday.com

Big Ten football predictions for Minnesota in 2024

Minnesota faces a steep uphill battle in the new and bigger Big Ten.
trojanswire.usatoday.com trojanswire.usatoday.com

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Per Matt:

The Minnesota Golden Gophers are the Big Ten equivalent of what Cal was to the Pac-12. They have the longest Rose Bowl drought of any long-term Big Ten football member school. We define “long-term” as preceding Penn State’s arrival to the Big Ten in the 1990s. Penn State, then Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland, are comparatively “late” joiners to the conference, followed by the four recent arrivals from the West, including USC. That’s how we have the 18-team conference which starts something new for the Big Ten in 2024. We at Trojans Wire will spend the 2024 season working with our College Wire colleagues at the websites whose teams are joining USC in moving to the Big Ten: Ducks Wire, UW Huskies Wire, and UCLA Wire. Our Big Ten football roundtable is predicting the records for all 18 Big Ten football teams. We predict, as a panel of college football observers, how well Minnesota football will do this season under coach P.J. Fleck, who flourished in 2019 and almost got the Gophers to the Rose Bowl, but whose boat is now going against the tide in Minneapolis.

ZAC NEEL, DUCKS WIRE — MINNESOTA GOES 5-7​

DON SMALLEY, DUCKS WIRE — MINNESOTA GOES 7-5​

ROMAN TOMASHOFF, UW HUSKIES WIRE — MINNESOTA GOES 5-7​

MATT WADLEIGH, UCLA WIRE — MINNESOTA GOES 4-8​

MATT ZEMEK, TROJANS WIRE -- MINNESOTA GOES 4-8​


trojanswire.usatoday.com

Big Ten football predictions for Minnesota in 2024

Minnesota faces a steep uphill battle in the new and bigger Big Ten.
trojanswire.usatoday.com trojanswire.usatoday.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

If you sift through all the other stuff the entirety of their analysis and reasoning for why Minnesota is like Cal is "They have the longest Rose Bowl drought of any long-term Big Ten football member school" and since Cal had the longest such drought in the Pac 12 I guess we're just like them.

These ex-Pac-12 bloggers are a lazy bunch
 

fmlizard said:
If you sift through all the other stuff the entirety of their analysis and reasoning for why Minnesota is like Cal is "They have the longest Rose Bowl drought of any long-term Big Ten football member school" and since Cal had the longest such drought in the Pac 12 I guess we're just like them.

These ex-Pac-12 bloggers are a lazy bunch
Click to expand...

It's not far off. At all
 

fmlizard said:
If you sift through all the other stuff the entirety of their analysis and reasoning for why Minnesota is like Cal is "They have the longest Rose Bowl drought of any long-term Big Ten football member school" and since Cal had the longest such drought in the Pac 12 I guess we're just like them.

These ex-Pac-12 bloggers are a lazy bunch
Click to expand...
They might be lazy, but what they write has a ring of truth to it too.
 

LesBolstad said:
It's not far off. At all
Click to expand...
I agree, there's:

  • The Golden ____s
  • Urban public flagship universities
  • Pro sports markets
  • Bunch of distant national titles
  • Struggles with fan and university support
  • Full banana unis

It's just that the blogger gave us none of that, and instead wrote a bunch of word salad defining what they consider the old school Big Ten teams and almost nothing to support their headline point.
 


I can't wait to see how the former PAC12 schools do in the B1G... especially USC.

Gophers play USC at the Bank on October 5. It will be interesting to see if we still remind them of Cal after that game is played.
 

I wish there was no truth to their criticism of the Gophers, but...
I do believe if we lose Thursday it will be a long year... struggling to get to 6 wins.
Win and we are talking playoffs :p
 

The Cal comparison is reasonable...


AND THEN PJ FLECK RAISED THE BAR!

Minnesota may be stuck in a range but Fleck hit that ceiling and maybe above.

**

Related to realignment and Pac-12, a little off topic...


Cal and Stanford from the old Pac-12 are now in the ACC on the oppostie side of the country, the East Coast. Long flights many times for the students.

theacc.com

ACC Officially Welcomes Cal, SMU and Stanford to the League

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – The Atlantic Coast Conference continues to ACCOMPLISH GREATNESS with the addition of three world-class institutions in the University of California, Berkeley (Cal), Southern Methodist University (SMU) and Stanford University as full members with full voting...
theacc.com theacc.com
 

According to my arithmetic...

2017-2023: USC (PAC12) — 52 wins, 32 losses

2017-2023: Minnesota (B1G) — 50 wins, 34 losses

Remarkably similar, no? Maybe USC is a better comp than Cal...? Again, I can't wait to see how USC does in the B1G.
 





RememberMurray said:
According to my arithmetic...

2017-2023: USC (PAC12) — 52 wins, 32 losses

2017-2023: Minnesota (B1G) — 50 wins, 34 losses

Remarkably similar, no? Maybe USC is a better comp than Cal...? Again, I can't wait to see how USC does in the B1G.
Click to expand...
Comparing one team's worst stretch in the last 20 years to another team's best stretch in 50 years and still not beating it, isn't the flex you think it is.
 

haef7 said:
Comparing one team's worst stretch in the last 20 years to another team's best stretch in 50 years and still not beating it, isn't the flex you think it is.
Click to expand...

Your thinking, taken in a logical direction, seems to beg the question:

If USC is really having their worst 7-year stretch in 20 years, why on earth are they taking a condescending attitude toward a team having their best stretch over the last 50? The records of the two teams are virtually the same over the current/recent period (the Fleck years), which is far from a small sample size. Maybe the Trojan faithful should hold off and see how the next few years play out before they puff their chests too much.

On October 5 we'll get a direct head-to-head comparison, and we can see which team most resembles Cal. As a Gopher fan, I can't wait. And good luck to USC in the B1G!
 
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haef7 said:
Comparing one team's worst stretch in the last 20 years to another team's best stretch in 50 years and still not beating it, isn't the flex you think it is.
Click to expand...
USC winning % post Pete Carroll (4 coaches if you include Sarkisian's short tenure): (.666)
USC winning % Pete Carroll: (.815)
USC winning % of the three coaches prior to Pete Carroll: (.629)

USC is a very good program. Winning more than 2/3 of your conference games over many years isn't easy. But looking at the numbers, it sure seems that the winning % pre and post Carroll sure look very similar, which tells me that's what USC's "baseline" is until you find a transcendent (and cheating) coach. Making Lincoln Riley the 5th-highest paid coach (at the time of poaching) and having a Heisman, first-overall pick QB still wasn't enough to do it for USC. Riley has enough resources there to become Carroll-like (IMO), but joining the B1G will make it slightly harder. Additionally, when you look at the Pac-12 vs. B1G head-to-head record over the past 10 years, it would tell you that a Pac-12 program isn't likely to come into the B1G and run roughshod through it. The most likely scenario is a comparable or slightly worse record than in the Pac-12.

Pac-12 record vs. B1G, all games over past 10 years: 31-32
Pac-12 bowl game record vs. B1G over past 10 years: 8-17

Last three programs to join the B1G:
Nebraska
Last 13 years since joining the B1G: 50-61 (.450)
Previous 13 years prior to joining the B1G: 65-39 (.625)

Maryland
Last 10 years since joining the B1G: 27-57 (.321)
Previous 10 years prior to joining the B1G: 30-50 (.375)

Rutgers
Last 10 years since joining the B1G: 16-72 (.181)
Previous 10 years prior to joining the B1G: 34-36 (.485)

*Note: all numbers are conference games only
 
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Why do they never compare bowl records since we hired PJ?

5-0 over 7 years is amazing for Minnesota!
 


It will be fascinating this year to see how the old Pac 12 teams fare in the Big Ten. It is a real difference in style of play and some of those Pac12 teams will be dealing with truly harsh weather conditions for the first time as well.

Oregon seems like a safe bet to stay among the elite in college football. But where the other 3 slot in could any number of different ways.
 

I wonder if the bloggers will be shocked when our rodents take down both California teams this year!
 

Mngg11 Wire: The USC Trojans are going to become the Big Ten equivalent of what the Nebraska Cornhuskers have become since entering the conference. Forgettable to everyone but the media and their own fanbase.
 

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