Will you still be invested at the same level of fandom for men’s college hoops in the future as you are currently, based on all the changes now??

[GringaGopher]

I'll support them with season tickets as long as they are successful (reasonably so at least) in this new landscape. I had seasons for close to 40 years and dropped them last year. Now I am getting them again and so are others. I was just told by the box office that they have already had 300 new seasons bought this year and plenty of buzz and calls. I'd guess season tickets will increase by 1500 this year.

Good for you. Our families interest has been declining in the past few years and we dropped our season tickets after having them for decades. I remember road tripping all the way to the FF in 97’ and getting into an argument with a KY fan who called Trevor Winter “ stupid “. I will always want all MN sports to be successful but when college sports became more semi-pro with even less loyalty to teams I started to lose interest. I have always followed the woman’s game so I spend more of my time on that now. Hope the NCAA establishes more guidelines in the future…..

 

[MNVCGUY]

The biggest change with this new landscape is that there really is no point trying to look to the future at all in terms of guys on the roster because there is a solid chance some or all of them will be gone next year anyway.

Until they figure out a way to add some stability to rosters in the form of contracts or whatever, everything is year to year and all you can really do is hope your team is able to find a way to keep the key payers around for more than one season.

Used to be a kid would commit and you could be pretty confident he was going to spend multiple years with the program.....those days are long gone.

 

[GopherNuts]

If you’re on a fan forums you’re already someone who follows things closer than the majority of people. If the Gophers get to be competitive again, start getting some votes for the top 25, we’re all going to be back to following any and everything. Winning cures all, I know I wouldn’t care

 

[Holy Man]

Granville Waiters played 4 years. He looked old, but wasn't.

That’s what I thought too, but I’m getting so old I’m doubting my memory.

 

[Ski-U-Ham]

How long does the average player play for the Vikings/ Wolves/ Twins? I have no idea, but they come and go, and I still follow them closely. I will continue to follow the Gophers as well if it comes to that, because I love Minnesota and I live sports.

 

[WindyCityGopher]

For me, the confluence of timing between the advent of NIL hitting at the exact same time as Ben Johnson being brought in to run an already teetering program, really brought down my interest, both for the Gophers and college basketball overall (for me, as Minnesota hoops goes, so goes my interest). I’ve been a huge CBB fan since I was a kid in the early 80s, but the game as it currently stands bears little resemblance to what I fell in love with.

 

[MNVCGUY]

How long does the average player play for the Vikings/ Wolves/ Twins? I have no idea, but they come and go, and I still follow them closely. I will continue to follow the Gophers as well if it comes to that, because I love Minnesota and I live sports.

Fair point but it is a shame that we have now hit a point where we basically have to view college athletes in the same way we view pro athletes.

That said, the unrestricted free agency for every player every year has to go away here at some point. If we are going to treat them like pro athletes then go all the way with contracts and some actual structure.

But yeah, like you I'm a Minnesota sports fan so I will follow the teams even if the leagues are messed up.

 

[MNfootballfan]

I don't know how to answer this question. I have next to zero interest in college basketball. I'll still tune into March Madness but the first round games were the first non-Gopher games I have watched all year.

With Gopher basketball, I like, not love, them like I used to. They used to be calendar clearing, must watch TV for me. I knew the lineups, etc. Now, I still watch most games, but if I miss one so be it. This is because of two things - the biggest: I don't know the players on the team. I never knew players like Dusty Rychart, John Thomas, Andre Hollins, Lawerence Westbrook, etc personally... but I knew them because they were around 4 years. I became fans of them and enjoyed watching them grow. It was easy to be a fan. The second reason, the Gophers haven't been competitive for a while.

 

[MNfootballfan]

How long does the average player play for the Vikings/ Wolves/ Twins? I have no idea, but they come and go, and I still follow them closely. I will continue to follow the Gophers as well if it comes to that, because I love Minnesota and I live sports.

The only difference is I know barring injury that Justin Jefferson will be on the Vikings for the forseeable future and if he were to become disgruntled we will trade him and receive players and draft picks in return. NFL stands for Not For Long for many players... but your stars are usually around for the long term.

I can't tell you that Koi Perich will be a Gopher next year and if he wakes up tomorrow decides to chase big money all my favorite football team will have is a void at the safety position.

 

[MNVCGUY]

I don't know how to answer this question. I have next to zero interest in college basketball. I'll still tune into March Madness but the first round games were the first non-Gopher games I have watched all year.

With Gopher basketball, I like, not love, them like I used to. They used to be calendar clearing, must watch TV for me. I knew the lineups, etc. Now, I still watch most games, but if I miss one so be it. This is because of two things - the biggest: I don't know the players on the team. I never knew players like Dusty Rychart, John Thomas, Andre Hollins, Lawerence Westbrook, etc personally... but I knew them because they were around 4 years. I became fans of them and enjoyed watching them grow. It was easy to be a fan. The second reason, the Gophers haven't been competitive for a while.

The roster churn definitely makes it tougher to stay interested when the team is struggling because as you mentioned you can't really form any sort of attachment to the players on the team the way you could when guys were around for multiple years.

Baring a Garcia return - there are no rotation players left from the 23-24 team, and Asuma is the only rotation guy left from the 24-25 team.

That near complete lack of continuity from one year to the next is crazy and it isn't just going on here. Hopefully Niko can find a way to bring at least some stability to the roster. I like that most of his additions have multiple years available, assuming of course he is able to get them to stick around.

 

[TwistingMyMelon]

I never knew players like Dusty Rychart, John Thomas, Andre Hollins, Lawerence Westbrook, etc personally... but I knew them because they were around 4 years.

That's only one side of the story. I won't name names here but I'm glad that more than a few players these days won't be around for four years.

 

[leib0039]

It's a weird debate, I think for those of us who are massive fans, this hurts. I love college basketball, yes I want the Gophers to do well and that matters, but I love watching rivalries that matter and kids who play not to get to the nba but because they love it. That is going away, Duke and UNC kids don't hate each other, they are all FA who come from Tulane or Vanderbilt, what do they care. So for me personally the game is losing what i value, development, rivals, and the concept of underdogs. It's now just who has more money. So yes those of us entrenched in it, I think its a worse product. But on the flip side, revenue is up, ratings are up, and casual fans see the big brands more which makes more money. Do I want to see kansas on the game of the week 10 weeks, heck no, I'd rather see a variety of teams and styles, but ratings say putting kansas/duke/unc/Kent on TV 40 times a year does better than Drake vs UNI, so that's what we get. I'll still watch but it has lost some luster.

 

[gopherguy15]

Nope, my interest has waned significantly over the past couple of years. I used to watch college basketball almost every single day, and this past year I probably watched a total of 25 regular season games outside of the Gophers. For me it started when Ryan Nembhard and Arthur Kaluma left what would have been a serious Final Four contender two years ago. Then Texas Tech openly tampered with Elijah Hawkins and bragged to the media about outbidding other teams for players. Next up, Washington gave Great Osobar 2 million last offseason. Now we’re hearing of players like AJ Storr transferring to his eighth school in eight years (HS and college), while a recruit that has never played college basketball was literally bought by BYU for 5+ million. You think it was coincidence that there weren’t as many upsets in March Madness this year? I don’t.

Love the Gophers and will buy season tickets again for next year, but college basketball is an awful mess right now. The casual college basketball fans won’t care, but the diehards like myself will slowly leave at this rate.

 

[Drake University Gopher]

It's a weird debate, I think for those of us who are massive fans, this hurts. I love college basketball, yes I want the Gophers to do well and that matters, but I love watching rivalries that matter and kids who play not to get to the nba but because they love it. That is going away, Duke and UNC kids don't hate each other, they are all FA who come from Tulane or Vanderbilt, what do they care. So for me personally the game is losing what i value, development, rivals, and the concept of underdogs. It's now just who has more money. So yes those of us entrenched in it, I think it’s a worse product. But on the flip side, revenue is up, ratings are up, and casual fans see the big brands more which makes more money. Do I want to see kansas on the game of the week 10 weeks, heck no, I'd rather see a variety of teams and styles, but ratings say putting kansas/duke/unc/Kent on TV 40 times a year does better than Drake vs UNI, so that's what we get. I'll still watch but it has lost some luster.

FWIW I’d watch the Drake v UNI game! There has to be at least 100 of us that would watch the game.