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Post by Kapitan on Aug 5, 2023 21:16:02 GMT
There have been some other shifts through the years, too. The Metro and Great Midwest--relevant to your neck of the woods!--became Conferene USA, for example. The Southwest was a predecessor that merged with the Big 8 into the Big 12, too. I guess they aren't really changes due to awkwardness of numbers, though. I do know some other numbers changed through the years, but I think the last one is Pac 10 to 12. But Pac had a few different numbers, I think. And the Big 10 originally was something else.
You're right, though: the brand equity is really what matters to them.
I wonder how the Pac is going to proceed now. Very interesting. That brand might be gone. Four schools left? Ouch.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 28, 2023 19:25:45 GMT
You may expect me to rant about how the Atlantic Coast Conference looks likely to add SMU, Stanford, and Cal this week. (Poor Washington St and Oregon St ... enjoy the Mountain West or WAC!) But nope, it's actually a sports-related post this time.
Minnesota opens their season Thursday night, hosting Nebraska. I'm not fond of Thursday night games. (What's wrong with traditional Saturday games!? I know, I know ... TV considerations.) But I am looking forward to watching Gophers football ... even if I can't stomach head coach PJ Fleck.
Perhaps most exciting this season, we've finally moved on from six-year player (and almost five-year starter) Tanner Morgan, who was by all accounts a good kid, a strong leader ... and more a game manager than game changer. He was a system quarterback, and when the system boasted future NFL players like Tyler Johnon and Rashod Bateman at the wideout positions and an offensive line full of future NFL players, he looked very solid. When not, not. He had been in Pittsburgh's camp this summer, but I don't think anyone expects him on an NFL roster. An NFL staff? Absolutely. But not a roster.
In his place will be third-year QB Athan Kaliakmanis, a bigger, stronger-armed, more mobile player out of Illinois. Frankly, if not for loyalty, I think Kaliakmanis would have been the starter last season. He played a little less safe style of football than Morgan, but it was a higher-risk, higher-reward variety. We also have imported some wide receiver talent including a couple of transfers and some younger guys, not to mention (hopefully) the return of Chris Autman-Bell, who had been our #1 guy before some injuries last year.
It doesn't seem we'll be a great team this year, and our schedule is brutal: at #21 North Carolina; hosting #2 Michigan; at #25 Iowa; at #3 Ohio State; and hosting #19 Wisconsin could be five losses and leaves little wiggle room for the more coin-toss kinds of games. But if we can finish with 8 wins, that would be spectacular. Seven seems more likely.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 31, 2023 20:35:28 GMT
The big day is here! We're about 3.5 hours away from kickoff, Nebraska at Minnesota. The game is on Fox, so there should be a reasonable audience, too. It's also a sellout, so there will be a good crowd on hand. Warm weather--about 82 right now, should be in the high 70s at kickoff and low 70s by the end of the game.
I'm very excited, but only cautiously optimistic. The rumors here are that the Gophers will finally open up the offense a little to take advantage of QB Athan Kaliakmanis's talent. Here's hoping!
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 1, 2023 13:08:01 GMT
You may expect me to rant about how the Atlantic Coast Conference looks likely to add SMU, Stanford, and Cal this week. And now this is a reality. Gross. I hate it.
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 16, 2023 12:29:05 GMT
Game 3 for the Minnesota Gophers football team is a big one: a nationally televised (ESPN) road game against #20 North Carolina, with their future NFL 1st-rounder Drake Maye at QB an an offense that racks up nearly 500 yards a game through their 2-0 start.
But the Gophers are also 2-0, have had a very strong defense that allows just about 220 yards a game, and last week busted out a dominant running game (against an admittedly inferior opponent, Eastern Michigan).
A win this week could well put the Gophers into the Top 25.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 7, 2023 15:20:31 GMT
The occasionally exciting but modestly disappointing Gophers host #2, undefeated Michigan this evening (6:30 CT) in a nationally televised game (NBC).
I wish I could say I were excited, but I'm actually dreading it somewhat. We've had some inconsistent play and a few key injuries (likely All-Conference linebacker Cody Lindenberg has not played yet this season; star freshman tailback Darius Taylor missed last week with a leg injury and his status isn't clear), I'm afraid we might have a poor showing against a very good Wolverines team.
Michigan has outscored their opponents 162-30 so far this season. JJ McCarthy, their QB, has completed more than 79% of his passes (!) and has a 10:3 TD to interceptions ratio, while tailback Blake Corum has run for almost 6 ypc en route to his 425 yards and 9 TDs.
So I'm afraid we might be getting blown out on national television. That's not great! But, fingers crossed we have a great game and at least make it competitive, maybe even squeak out a win.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 21, 2023 23:26:27 GMT
The Gophers, totaling just 239 total yards and not scoring a touchdown, beat longtime rival #24 Iowa 12-10 in Iowa City. It was UG-LY. But we held them to 127 yards, including 11 rushing yards on 28 carries.
On one hand, I'm unbelievably frustrated at this team. On the other hand, we got our first win in Iowa City in 24 years. Got to love it. Just 4-3, but with some winnable games coming up, a bowl game is again a reasonable expectation in this disappointing group.
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Post by carllove on Oct 28, 2023 23:48:43 GMT
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 29, 2023 12:11:11 GMT
My Gophers didn't beat quite so impresive an opponent, but we did get the win over Michigan St.
If it was impressive, it's because of this: our top three running backs were all out injured, with freshman star Darius Taylor and redshirt freshman potential stud Zach Evans both having left last week's game with unknown leg injuries, and 6th year senior Bryce Williams out for the year. So the idea was senior transfer Sean Tyler and redshirt sophomore Jordan Nubin--a converted safety--carrying the load.
Tyler fumbled his first carry. On another drive, he caught a little swing pass that looked like a 12-yard game, but his knee was down when he caught it nine yards behind the line of scrimmage. The errors were apparently too much, as I'm not sure he got another play. So it was Nubin, our 5th string tailback.
He carried 40 times for over 200 yards and 2 TDs.
It was a 27-12 win, but for most of the game, it was UGLY. Still, it's a win. 5-3, 3-2 in the B10.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 4, 2023 12:48:03 GMT
A court has certified three subclasses in antitrust litigation against the NCAA on behalf of athletes. The complaints allege that these groups of athletes illegally were prevented from earning or sharing revenues from: NIL deals (prior to NIL being allowed); broadcast rights; and video games rights. The complaints allege the subclass of football and men's basketball players lost in all three areas; women's basketball lost in NIL and broadcast rights; and all other sports' atheltes lost in NIL. The lead attorney is Steve Berman of Hagens Berman, an absolute powerhouse class action plaintiff attorney. Once classes are certified--meaning that the groups of people defined by the complaint and other filings in the cases are judged by the presiding court to indeed warrant joint treatment, as opposed to individual treatment that would require individual lawsuits or action--settlement is quite likely, as pursuing a verdict in court is all but guaranteed to be time-consuming (years), hugely expensive, and risky in terms of the outcome. Point being: I would expect a settlement with the NCAA that grants athletes some of these sought-after revenues going forward as well as "back pay." www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/38813620/athletes-granted-class-certification-antitrust-case-vs-ncaa
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 4, 2023 23:01:42 GMT
Unreal. The 5-3 Gophers, not an especially good team but in position to control their path to a potential B10 West first place finish, led 26-21 and had Illinois at 4th and 11 at their own 15. They had knocked out starting Illinois's QB Luke Altmyer the previous play.
Illinois's backup threw 22 yards for a 1st down, then 17 yards for another 1st down, then 46 yards for a TD.
Minnesota could not respond with 50 seconds to go.
Illinois 27, Minnesota 26. Absolutely infuriating.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 18, 2023 16:01:21 GMT
The Gophers went from 5-3 and in legit position to win the Big Ten West to 5-5 after losing two extremely winnable games, and now we're in need of one more win (in our final two games) to assure any bowl game at all.
The two opponents left? At undefeated Ohio State today, and at home against our main rival Wisconsin.
Today, I wouldn't be surprised if we lost by 40+ points. It could get really ugly, really fast.
Next week is winnable, but very far from a sure thing. Meanwhile, our annoying head coach PJ Fleck keeps yammering on with his stupid cliches and buzzwords, like the most annoying corporate manager you've ever heard, spouting self-help and supposedly inspirational business-success jargon. He's a very good recruiter, but he's a questionable gameday coach and the most insufferable public personal imaginable.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 25, 2023 13:24:36 GMT
The final game of the regular season for the football Gophers, and it's a big one. We face Wisconsin, probably our biggest rival and certainly one of our biggest two (along with Iowa). It's a trophy game, for Paul Bunyan's Axe. Wisconsin has struggled somewhat this year under their new head coach and their transition to a version of the Air Raid offense after probably 30 years of being a power running team--certainly since Barry Alvarez was coach there.
The Gophers enter the game a disappointing 5-6, with at least two of those losses (Northwestern and Illinois) just atrocious, truly losses snatched from the jaws of victory. 7-4 wouldn't be great, but it would be something. We need this win to be automatically eligible for a bowl game, though it'll be a bad one regardless. (We could still be picked for a low-tier bowl even at 5 wins, apparently.)
College football being what it is now, whatever team plays in any bowl game may not much resemble the one we've had all year anyway, as seniors, draft hopefuls, and transfers tend to skip even major bowls these days, to say nothing of minor ones coming on the heels of disappointing seasons.
Our annoying, schticky, marketing/human resources/kindergarten director PJ Fleck is getting some heat locally, but I don't expect him to be pushed out, considering he's been more successful than other recent coaches. But he is a pretty annoying human and a terrible game coach. (He is also a good recruiter, though.)
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Post by carllove on Dec 27, 2023 5:47:52 GMT
KU Football is capping off a nine win season, winning the Garaunteed Rate Bowl. They tried to outdo the Kansas City Chiefs on penalties, but it didn’t matter in the long run, as they were the clearly the superior team. Nice to see them go from the bottom of the Big 12 to an upper middle team. Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU! My Alma Mater!
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 27, 2023 12:52:05 GMT
Minnesota capped off their season with an ugly win in a low-tier bowl game, which they only qualified for because of their academic performance (being below .500 on the season). Since the regular season ended, we lost our starting and third-string QBs and backup RB to the portal. We were also down our starting TE (draft preparation) and four starting defenders (draft preparation and injuries), along with another half-dozen or so players. And of course newly acquired portal players can't play yet. So it was rough.
In the end we did beat Bowling Green 30-24, but when when you're in the B10 and playing what seems a nearly even match against a MAC team, that's not good! Our freshman tailback Darius Taylor, who missed over half the season, was the only reason we won. 35 carries, 208 yards and a TD. He not only dominated out of the backfield, he played wildcat QB probably a quarter to a third of the snaps. (Our starting QB, a 5th year senior who himself used to have a bit part as a wildcat QB, was not effective. Cole Kramer was 8-16 for 26 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT. His biggest contribution was probably the storyline he provided, as he was not intending to play in the bowl game, instead preparing to move with his fiance to Arizona and get married next month; he was convinced to stay for just this one game when QBs 1 and 3 transferred. The announcers couldn't shut up about it, and his very photogenic fiance was on camera more than he was...)
Not impressive, but a win. You have to take it. Hopefully things improve next year. There are going to be a lot of new pieces because of the portal, but I guess that's the game now.
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