Minnesota Football & Nebraska Basketball Have Much in Common

You get the feeling this is a make-or-break season for Doc. I like what I see so far: the team plays really, really hard, which I think in the end was the issue with both Brewster at UM and Callahan at NU. Fans and ADs will tolerate mediocre records if there’s evidence the morale is high and the dedication to the program and each other is there.

I don’t have any sort of say in the matter, but I do NOT WANT a Huggins/Calipari/Pitino type at NU. I’d rather lose with 4-year players than win with a bunch of one-and-dones – the price you pay for such a set-up is a bit too steep for me.

Speaking of comparisons with UM, you’ve gotta like what Tubby Smith is up to, don’t you?

Minnesota also has the problem with (if you exclude their recent facilities upgrade) spending the least amount of money annually on their football program of any Big Ten team. Not a coincidence Ohio State is on the other end of that particular scale.

Yeah Minnesota is full of fair weather fans (I would argue that Minnesota fans generally are fickle. Hell the Twins, who have what I think are easily the best fans in the state, were on the verge of leaving in 90s. The Metrodome was half empty only a couple years ago.

I get it (I will always be a Royals fan so I know a lot about losing teams) but the Gophers seem to be a microcosm of a weird state wide view towards sports that seems to reflect more of a west coast mind set than a mid western mind set. Maybe i am off base but I have spent quite a lot of time in Minneapolis and that is always the vibe I get when talking sports with the natives.

Are the two most prime examples of how Minnesota has made a big effort to regain status as a competitive football program in the new B1G era. The program had attempted in the past to cling on the to the tradition and history of 6 National Championships from the 30’s, 40’s and 60’s, but ultimately came to the realization that major strides would need to be made in order to communicate to the fan base (and recruits) a willingness to succeed.

As a UofM student from 2004-2008 I experienced some of the biggest efforts to improve and develop the program beyond a state of mediocrity. While Gopher Football may not have the pull that the Vikings or Twins have in the Twin Cities, or throughout the state, it does have enough pull to produce $290M stadium (prominently displayed on Monday Night Football this year) and two major conference HC firings and hirings—which tells me that there is at least a sufficient level of interest. Gopher football will never reach the elite status of Ohio State football or Nebraska football, but their recent efforts to become competitive in the new B1G era should prove worthy.

Hopefully Nebraska basketball will see similar results in the same sense.

But I don’t think it’s the Vikings’ fault. Look at Wisconsin – one of the most consistently successful and popular football programs in the Big Ten, and the Packers are far bigger there than the Vikings are in Minnesota.

Through the ‘80s and early ’90s, Wisconsin football was like Minnesota – terrible every year, with little hope of any improvement pretty much ever. What changed? They got a once-in-a-lifetime coach in Alvarez who started winning, and suddenly Wisconsin’s massive alumni base woke up and started caring.

In other words, even though it’s a chicken-and-egg question, losing is ultimately the reason people don’t care, not the other way around. Look at how huge Nebraska volleyball is – during football season, no less. It’s not because of any intrinsic love Nebraskans have for volleyball, it’s because the volleyball team plays at an elite level, year in and year out. If the basketball team did anything remotely close to that, people would respond the same way.

during all the attendant brouhaha from the Nebraska move to the Big 10 : Basketball doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t have the fan base, it doesn’t pull in the dollars, it just doesn’t compete with football, college or NFL. Otherwise some of the Big 12 orphans might not be quaking in their boots about when the Texas Mess (aka the remnants of the Big 12) dissolves and leaves them high and dry. They could just write their own ticket on the back of their basketball glory, right? Nope. Being a B-ball powerhouse amounts to diddly in the big scheme of things.

And that, my friends, is why Nebraska doesn’t care – because it doesn’t matter. It would be nice to have a winning basketball team, but as long as we have football…. meh. Meanwhile, we can cheer on the volleyball team.

The loss at Texas Tech sucked, but they have showed improvement. They’ve played with every conference opponent so far.

But yes, I would trade every single men’s basketball victory in a season for one more football win. In a heartbeat. I would also trade every women’s basketball victory for one more volleyball (or football win). I would also trade every women’s hoops win for a mushroom Swiss Runza, but we’ll stick to the original formula here…

We also had the debate on The Daily Gopher back in the summer about why Gopher football struggles. Is Gopher football terrible because Minnesotan’s don’t care, or do Minnesotan’s not care because it’s terrible? I think the conclusion we came to was “yes”.

But I’ll save it for it’s own article later in the season..