Minnesota is the BEST JOB IN THE COUNTRY
Fans are desperate for a winner.
When one comes along, they will pack the house. UMn led the country in attendance back in the 70s.
And we love our superstar athletes. And we are pretty decent towards the ones who contribute little to nothing even. We are not a cutthroat kind of place like an Alabama.
Fans who are so used to not winning, they will be very patient, so patient that they'll put up with a coach that only wins 2 games in conference in his 3rd season.
UMn is building a 100 million dollar Athletes Village.
Only Div 1 school in the state
Cool arse city to hang out in for the coach, he and his family can do almost anything they want for fun and entertainment
For players, meaning things you can tell the recruits, its a PRO SPORTS town, this helps the better athletes, we all know these things. And the not so great athletes, well, they are athletes, so you think they don't enjoy the opportunity to go to games? And we Minnesotans all know about the incredible job opportunities in the Twin Cities area.
Then there is the fact that Minnesota is one of the finest academic institutions in the country, even the world.
There is not a single public university in the country that has as many Nobel Prize winners associated with their university, except for Illinois. Unofficially they have the same # as UMn, officially they have 1 less. And I bring up the issue of Nobel winners because one of them was a former Gopher athlete.
And WHEN WE WIN, we send our best players into the Pro leagues, at a rate comparable to the top schools in each of the sports with pro leagues.
UMn has ranked in the Top 20 at putting players into the NFL and the NBA and MLB in those sports ALL-TIME rankings of this, in the very recent past. Unfortunately the fb program's struggles, mostly through the 90s, dropped them in those rankings and they might not be in the Top 20 anymore. Same with the cbb team's ranking. But hockey is #1, putting more into the NHL than other programs with more Frozen Fours and/or Natl Titles than UMn. Same with # sent to the Olympics, UMn is #1 in that regard, and its not even close. Minnesota sends more wrestlers to the Professional leagues than their corresponding # of Natl Titles says they should as well. Same could be said about the VB program.
And outside of sending athletes into the pros, as athletes, we send an inordinate # of former players into the coaching ranks of several sports, especially the big money sports. Minnesota has been more of a Cradle of Coaches in football than THE Cradle of Coaches Miami of Ohio.
OK, yes, I am a diehard Gopher fan, so I am biased.
If you are a coach who only cares about cbb then maybe a one sport only school where cbb rules high above all else would be a better option.
If you are a coach who only cares about cfb then maybe a one sport only school where cfb rules high above all else would be a better option.
Outside of those two scenarios, where would be a better option? Stanford maybe? Lot tougher to get great athletes there with their super high academic requirements. But I'd acknowledge Stanford is a pretty cool school.
