Connect the dots, howeday. There is no other DI program in the country that has a comparable situation that the Gopher's have with the Vikings. Since 1968 the Vikings have been one of the two or three most successful NFL teams. With very few exceptions the Purple has been an extremely competive team for that entire period of time. Since the mid 1970's the Gophers have been pretty much irrelvant to most people in Minnesota. Even though the majority of Minnesotans want the Gophers to do well it means almost nothing to them if they don't. That is because whatever happens to the Gophers on Saturday they have the Vikes game on Sunday to look forward to. The negative impact of the Vikings on the Gopher football program cannot be overstated.
There is a degree of truth to this, but you are greatly exagerating the degree to which it exists and even moreso the direct impact it has on winning football games. Further, the toothpaste can't be put back in the tube.
The Gophers are not 'irrelevant' to most people in MN. If they are, how will the Vikings leaving help that? It's 2010, droves of people are not suddenly going to become huge Gopher fans just because the Vikings move. They'll either find a different NFL team to root for on Sunday or do something else with thier Sunday afternoon. Save a chance preseason game, the Vikings and Gophers do not play at the same time.
Does having a Vikings game Sunday lessen how much time the average Gopher fan spends grousing over that weeks loss versus say an Iowa fan? Sure. But how does that change the fact that they lost? How does it effect what actually happens on the field? We are 'selling out' TCF now, so it doesn't even impact the attendence in a meaningful way anymore, if it ever did.
Will the Vikings moving make recruits more likely to commit to the U? Not in the short-term. 20 years from now? Maybe, but it's impossible to know for sure or to what degree. Will it suddenly cause Vikings ticket-holders to decide to take the money they would have spent on Vikings tickets and donate to the U football program? Will it even substantially impact how much media coverage they get? Do you think the Star Tribune will just reassign Judd and Chip to the Gophers beat and have 3 guys covering it, filling the Trib with Gopher stories like they did in the glory days you're pining for? Heck no. They'd simply lay them off and apply the savings to thier ever-shrinking bottom-line. Will it lead to more Gopher coverage on sports radio? Maybe. But without the Vikings, I'd wager one of the two sports stations would quickly cease to exist. How much would that net gain really be and how it would help them win games?
If any Gopher teams have a right to complain about pro competition, it's hockey and men's basketball who fight for the same ticket-base as the T-Wolves/Wild far more then Gopher football does the Vikings and who worse yet often play home games at the same time. But I don't hear any crying about wanting the Wild to move away.
And even if all of this is true, and the Vikings are the root of the Gophers struggles, if forcing the Vikings to move away is the only way to make Gopher football better, then screw it. I would much rather have the Vikings then a marginally more successful Gopher football program, and so would a vast majority of Minnesota sports fans. Those of you think otherwise are beyond a tiny minority.
