UPDATED (10/13) Gophers cancel home and home with North Carolina; add New Mexico St

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Toilet Bowls

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
This is why I measure football performance by B1G record and standings. I don't think we should call a season where we go 6-6 after beating NMSU better than a season where we go 5-7 playing against a USC or UNC (I know those schools aren't the same caliber, I am just using them as examples of legitimate big conference programs). My metric every year is going to be what our B1G record is (and as a bonus, whether or not we beat Wisconsin/Iowa/Michigan). As far as I am concerned we were a 2-6 team two years ago, a 2-6 team last year, and hopefully a 6-2 team this year (I predict 3-5).
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This is not good. The signal being sent is, "Getting to a toilet bowl trumps all other non-conference schedule considerations."
 

Maximus said:
So narrowly losing at USC last year prepared the Gophers to get outscored 144-31 in their first 3 games against real competition?

This year they played a team in Syracuse that would be similar to North Carolina and that prepared them to get drubbed against Iowa?
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Syracuse is #78 in the Sagarin ratings. North Carolina is #22.
 

So, our OOC schedules for the next year are:

2013
UNLV
@New Mexico State
Western Illinois
San Jose State

2014
Eastern Illinois
Middle Tennessee State
New Mexico State
San Jose State

2015
South Dakota State
@Colorado State
Kent State?
Ohio

2016
New Mexico State
Indiana State
@ Miami (OH)
Colorado State


No excuse for not making a bowl game every year.
 

Gopherprof said:
So, our OOC schedules for the next year are:

2013
UNLV
@New Mexico State
Western Illinois
San Jose State

2014
Eastern Illinois
Middle Tennessee State
New Mexico State
San Jose State

2015
South Dakota State
@Colorado State
Kent State?
Ohio

2016
New Mexico State
Indiana State
@ Miami (OH)
Colorado State


No excuse for not making a bowl game every year.
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That is garbage. Most BCS teams play at least one BCS non-conference game. We now officially have among the most pathetic non-conference schedules in the country.
 

Wait a sec....I thought the main thing Kill wanted was 4 non-conf home games? Given that we signed a home and home with NMSU and are going to their place next year clearly Jerry just wanted an easier opponent and the home game wasn't the issue after all. This is just pathetic if we are running from a series with North Carolina for fear of getting beat. Unless there is some unreported detail we are all missing here this move just makes us look bad.
 


This pisses me off. This was one of the few opportunities I get to see the Gophers play in the South, and they chicken out to play the equivalent of a "directional" school.
I'm tired of playing four cupcakes and then getting out asses handed to us in the B1G (or even in the NC portion of the schedule) Want to show your program belongs? Then, play teams from AQ conferences.
 

6 Nov 1999 said:
This is not good. The signal being sent is, "Getting to a toilet bowl trumps all other non-conference schedule considerations."
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+1 it says get to that magical 2 win conference season and make the annual trip to Detroit call it a success.
 

Middle Tennessee State is actually a decent team. They clobbered Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
 




Who can be pissed about playing 4 cup cake before getting killed in the Big Ten. This was he first year in how many we actually beat the cupcakes? It doesn't matter who we play at this time until we start to add better talent we wont compete in the Big Ten. No matter how good our coaches are supposed to be you win with players. Until they prove they can bring in the type of athletes needed in the Big Ten we are not going to compete. I won't even argue how good our coaches are or are not at this point they have to recruit better athletes and football players first.
 

Cayman said:
I like Kill, but if this is really his non-conference scheduling philosophy, then I disagree with it. I loved how Brewster would try to schedule at least one quality BCS opponent, like USC, North Carolina, and Texas (unfortunate that one didn't work out). In addition to not wanting to schedule road games, trying to take this game off the schedule I think looks bad. North Carolina isn't an unwinnable game, it's not Alabama or Oklahoma, it's not USC for that matter, and we didn't get embarrassed in that game. Our first game against North Carolina would have been (hopefully still will be) at the beginning of Kill's third year, I feel like we'll be looking for at least 6 wins, hopefully 7 or 8, and I think we could hold our own against a middling to above average BCS opponent.

If it's true, kinda lame, and I hope that periodically playing the MAC champ won't be considered our marquee non-conference opponent for years to come. Non-conference scheduling is one area where I would like to see Kill emulate Brewster, that and going to a bowl game and getting 7 wins in his second year. :)

And think about it: when it comes to non-conference scheduling, who would you rather have Kill emulate? Brewster? or Bielema?
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when we are a quality BCS team, we will play quality BCS teams.
 

Gopherprof said:
So, our OOC schedules for the next year are:

2013
UNLV
@New Mexico State
Western Illinois
San Jose State

2014
Eastern Illinois
Middle Tennessee State
New Mexico State
San Jose State

2015
South Dakota State
@Colorado State
Kent State?
Ohio

2016
New Mexico State
Indiana State
@ Miami (OH)
Colorado State


No excuse for not making a bowl game every year.
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They need to make the full cost of a season ticket tax deductible with this garbage. Season ticket expense is now a donation, especially since the giveaway tickets will continue to flood campus.
 

gopherjay said:
when we are a quality BCS team, we will play quality BCS teams.
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Indiana, Illinois, Purdue, and Northwestern all have BCS opponents on their 2013 and 2014 schedules. From what I can tell, we are the only Big Ten team that does not have a BCS opponent on the schedule for BOTH 2013 and 2014. Not to mention Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Penn State all have 2 BCS opponents on their non-conference schedules for 2013 and/or 2014.

Every other Big Ten team has at least one BCS opponent on the schedule for both 2013 and 2014, and we don't have one for either.

Maybe I shouldn't have even said "quality BCS opponent," playing a BCS opponent at all is more exciting to me than playing MAC teams at home. Schedule Colorado, Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Washington State, I don't care. I would take any of those teams over New Mexico State any day of the week.
 



So where is this official? The game is still scheduled at GopherSports.com and on UNC's website
 

If true this is disappointing. I like the Mason strategy of 3 winnable games and one bigger conference school that could be a toss-up. UNC would be a good game. I do want to get revenge on NMSU so they can't hold that win over us.
 

skoalvikings said:
They need to make the full cost of a season ticket tax deductible with this garbage. Season ticket expense is now a donation, especially since the giveaway tickets will continue to flood campus.
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Agree. They need to cut the prices for season ticket holders. Barring wins against Wisconsin and Michigan I don't think they will increase season ticket sales next year. Our prices are higher than Wisconsin's. They are flooding the market with low priced tickets. Has anyone looked at their Gopher points lately? The movement since 2009 is amazing. A lot of season ticket holders have bolted. Other businesses adjust the price of their goods in a down economy to ensure their consumers see value in the product. It's time.
 

patrick08 said:
If true this is disappointing. I like the Mason strategy of 3 winnable games and one bigger conference school that could be a toss-up. UNC would be a good game. I do want to get revenge on NMSU so they can't hold that win over us.
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What? NOT THE WAY MASON DID IT! Assuming the schedules are set for 4 years ahead...let's look at Good 'ol Masons non-conference schedules:
'01 Toledo, Louisiana Lafayette, Murray St.
'02 Southwest Texas State, Louisiana Lafayette, Toledo, Buffalo
'03 Tulsa, Troy St, Ohio, L-Lafayette
etc.
Assuming it went out to '09 when he was let go....'08 Cal and '09 Syracuse and Cal were the only BCS games. Were there some MAC schools and and some WAC schools...yes. That's exactly what we have in Colorado State (on Mason's schedule too), Miami (OH), Kent State etc.

That's the way you build a program that sustains and has a CHANCE TO GET TO THE UPPER TIER. WINNING BREEDS WINNING. Narrow losses and occasional wins don't build a program!
 

As a season ticket holder this sucks. I would have liked to see NC @ TCF. New Mexico St. does not do much for me.
 

Just read the U reportedly paid 850k to backout of this game. WOW, thats just sad if true.
 

GoldenHerbs said:
Just read the U reportedly paid 850k to backout of this game. WOW, thats just sad if true.
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This from a school that made the MBB ride a bus to some games to 'save money.' Pathetic. There better me more to this story than 'we wanted to add a cupcake.'
 

GoldenHerbs said:
Just read the U reportedly paid 850k to backout of this game. WOW, thats just sad if true.
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This is beyond sad. This really pisses me off! How can the AD (Teague) sign off on this??!! What a waste of the AD's budget and the value of our tickets. I think a letter to the AD and the Gopher football program is in order, but I wish I would sent it a week ago (not that it would have mattered).
 





I remember how ticked I was that Baylor backed out on us in the early 2000's and we had to add some 4th tier terrible opponent, to be on the other side of it is just not right.
 

GoldenHerbs said:
Just read the U reportedly paid 850k to backout of this game. WOW, thats just sad if true.
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If this is true there has to be more than meets the eye going on here and I hope a media member not named Sid really digs into this one.

How do we justify paying money to get out of a game in order to add a home and home series with New Mexico State. Maybe I could see paying if we were adding a home game but to pay money to get out of it and still go on the road......

On the surface this looks like a chicken sh!t move by a program that doesn't feel it can compete with even one BCS program during the non-conf portion of the schedule. That is a terrible message to send to your fan base and players. There has to be more to this story....there just has to. Maybe UNC paid us, at least that would make some sense for why we would look to get out of it.
 

Just a quick update, I was able to get a comment from Norwood Teague on this issue, he said "We are still working on opponents to replace the UNC series, and we hope those agreements will allow us to offset some of the expense to cancel this series."

Also, received confirmation that the buyout is 800K (not that that number is much different from the 850K reported). Just wanted to note it.

I also sent a follow-up question to ask about the reasoning behind this, and have not heard back on that yet. Will keep you posted if I do.
 

Thanks Gopher Lady.

So basically our cash strapped athletic department is paying to get out of a series in order to replace North Carolina with an even less attractive opponent which will more than likely cause fewer tickets to be sold to the game. Yep that makes a ton of sense. Not sure how you are going to offset much of the cost with a creampuff because you typically have to pay them to come in and take a beating which is going to cut into the already reduced revenue opportunities for the game based on the creampuff opponent.

Of course that all assumes that the New Mexico State home and home thing is not true per the comments from NT. If we don't end up with a 4th home game this will go down as one of the all time dumbest moves made by an athletic department. Maybe not quite on the level of hiring a guy with zero head coaching experience to run a BIG program but in the ballpark.
 

Any chance we see a $1 ticket promotion (plus a free hot dog) for the matchup with New Mexico State?
 

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