Futility in Sports that Matter

Since 1970, Minnesota has won/tied for a Big Ten Basketball or Football championship twice; lowest in the Big 10. That's 2 out of 76 and no addl. title in sight. The U of M administration/athletic departments should be ashamed. Alumni should be outraged.

Here's the breakdown (BB, FB, and totals for each school):

OSU 5, 21 -26
Michigan 4, 21 -25
Indiana 12, 0 -12
Mich St. 7, 3 -10
Illininois 6, 3 -9
Purdue 7, 1 -8
Iowa 2, 5 -7
Wis. 3, 3 -6
PSU 3, 0 -3 (entered 1993)
NW 0, 3 -3
Minnesota 2, 0 -2

Absolutely correct

Forty years of futility brought on by a series of administrators who dumbed down athletics.
They also allowed a slide backwards in academics as well, inadvertantly. Football and to a
bit lesser extent, men's basketball, carry the water for the entire athletic program. Minny is
fortunate in that men's hockey also contributes a positive contribution to the coffers. We
need successful programs in all three of those areas to carry the load. Hopefully TCF Bank
Stadium will assist in that regard. Winning in all the other sports is nice, but does nothing
for overall fund raising. On a side note, did anyone notice the list of salaries at the U. Borton
makes approx. $100000 more than Lucia and does not show a profit. Something's wrong
with that picture. I suppose it has something to do with Title IX.

Bruinicks and Maturi seem to have the athletics department headed in the right way from both a business and a fan's standpoint. I'm too young to fully remember, but didn't the "powers that be" in the 80's and 90's not only de-prioritize sports, but resent sports? 20 years ago, would TCF Bank Stadium have been an open air interpretive dance theater with organic granola and herbal root juice at the concession stands?

Maybe its time for a little history lesson

Ok class, take out your books and open to Chapter 6. As we noted last week the University of Minnesota has gone egg head. And the new President is Malcom Moos. He of the higher than thou crowd, proposes that the Univeristy of Minnesota leave the Big 10 and follow the University of Chicago model. Football, competition, and winning at all costs are to be disdained. Funding for this is absurd. We have the football loyalists outraged, we were National Champs in 1961, won a share of the Big 10 in 1967 and now this? A former football player, former sports director at WCCO takes over as AD and brings in a former player. It was about all that the administration would allow. There was some talk about bringing a former player and one of the winingest coaches here as AD, but no he was too much about winning and we didn't want that. As you read the chapter you will find more about these three men and why they guided the program and how they were funded.

We will discuss this in our next session. If you get time, you might study the success and failures during the early 1970's. And the succession at President of the U of M. Does the goal of athletics change?

With all due respect, Wrendahl was the source authority of years in the wilderness. And while he cannot be with us, I will attempt to bring out these lowlights. I am sure other can add their favorite memory of Malcom as well.

Surely Penn state's titles have been in football, not basketball?

One has to hope this administration is set on changing all that. Football back on campus and the Tubby hire have led the charge. With the Brewster hire, both Bruininks and Maturi said they expect Brewster to field competitive teams and even mentioned the Rose Bowl as a goal. We shall see.

Do we need any more reason of proof of why we have had our attendance issues? Why people have become cynical? Why we don't travel in high numbers? IMO people and philosophies are in place to change that. If we have a few seasons in Bball and Fball that are break outs and memorable we will have tremendous support. I hope we get there.

if i could play the devil's advocate

husker70 said:

Ok class, take out your books and open to Chapter 6. As we noted last week the University of Minnesota has gone egg head. And the new President is Malcom Moos. He of the higher than thou crowd, proposes that the Univeristy of Minnesota leave the Big 10 and follow the University of Chicago model. Football, competition, and winning at all costs are to be disdained. Funding for this is absurd. We have the football loyalists outraged, we were National Champs in 1961, won a share of the Big 10 in 1967 and now this? A former football player, former sports director at WCCO takes over as AD and brings in a former player. It was about all that the administration would allow. There was some talk about bringing a former player and one of the winingest coaches here as AD, but no he was too much about winning and we didn't want that. As you read the chapter you will find more about these three men and why they guided the program and how they were funded.

We will discuss this in our next session. If you get time, you might study the success and failures during the early 1970's. And the succession at President of the U of M. Does the goal of athletics change?

With all due respect, Wrendahl was the source authority of years in the wilderness. And while he cannot be with us, I will attempt to bring out these lowlights. I am sure other can add their favorite memory of Malcom as well.

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as an alumnus of the U and current student at U of C let me just say that dropping division I football and leaving the big ten has not been a detriment for U of C. in fact it has become one of the top ten universities in the world. there over 80 nobel laureates associated with the university and advancements in economics, law, medicine, physics as well as the social sciences and humanities have probably made the world a better place than has osu's national championships. i love gopher foootball, and the last thing i want is for the gophers to leave the big ten, as the big ten has many of the top public research institutions in the country. but the spirit of college sports is the "student athlete". i know that that this term has taken on a whole new meaning with college athletics becoming a money making venture. but if it comes down to athletics competing with academics, then academics has to come first.

calling U officials "eggheads" and "higher than thou" will do nothing but deepen the stereotypes and widen the gulf between the academically and athletically minded folks. the main problem with the less than mediocrity of minnesota athletics for the last half a century is that there has been no real improvement in academics over that time span--at least not until the last five years with the current initiative to turn the U into one of the top three public research institutions in the country.

if the U can accomplish this initiative and be thought of in the same ethos as cal berkeley while being relatively competitive in athletics, i don't see anything wrong with that.

So here's a question for you...

bigtenchamps1899 said:

but if it comes down to athletics competing with academics, then academics has to come first.

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How many of the thousands of college athletes would be denied an education if it weren't for athletics????


There is no way to know for sure, but athletics surely advance the cause of academics. Look at all the majors dealing with sports management, injuries etc....

If every college took the highbrow attitude UC took, would this country be better off???

Maverick said:

How many of the thousands of college athletes would be denied an education if it weren't for athletics????


There is no way to know for sure, but athletics surely advance the cause of academics. Look at all the majors dealing with sports management, injuries etc....

If every college took the highbrow attitude UC took, would this country be better off???

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if an athlete is not prepared to do the level of work required at a university then the athlete should apply to a state college or community college...like everyone else.

it is not highbrow to expect a certain level of academic competency in an athlete, it is demeaning and insulting to expect less of athletes and lower the bar so that they can make the university more money.

bigtenchamps1899 said:

if an athlete is not prepared to do the level of work required at a university then the athlete should apply to a state college or community college...like everyone else.

it is not highbrow to expect a certain level of academic competency in an athlete, it is demeaning and insulting to expect less of athletes and lower the bar so that they can make the university more money.

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Who said anything about lowering standards? Oh yeah, you did! The way you jumped right to that assumption shows a definite highbrow attitude.

There's a lot more to going to college than academic capability, like Money! And Access!

Athletics help overcome those obstacles a lot more than lowering standards so a "dumb football player" to quote a common stereotype, can get in to school Just to remind you, the Gophers had 27 players named to the Big Ten academic team! How many of those players do you think woudn't have had the chance to go to college without athletics?

Maverick said:

Who said anything about lowering standards? Oh yeah, you did! The way you jumped right to that assumption shows a definite highbrow attitude.

There's a lot more to going to college than academic capability, like Money! And Access!

Athletics help overcome those obstacles a lot more than lowering standards so a "dumb football player" to quote a common stereotype, can get in to school Just to remind you, the Gophers had 27 players named to the Big Ten academic team! How many of those players do you think woudn't have had the chance to go to college without athletics?

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no, you asked how many would be "denied" an education. if a person is academically qualified to attend college then money and "access" (sounds like an unqualified buzzword) have nothing to do with being "denied" an education--at least if we are talking about the university of minnesota, which i assumed we were. i did not have enough money to attend the U, and through a combination of loans and grants i made things work. even if i chose not to take out loans and grants, then i wouldn't have been "denied" an education, i would have forgone a college education. unless you want to qualify the term "access" then perhaps we can come to the conclusion that the only reason that someone would be "denied" and education is academics.

Maverick said:

Who said anything about lowering standards? Oh yeah, you did! The way you jumped right to that assumption shows a definite highbrow attitude.

There's a lot more to going to college than academic capability, like Money! And Access!

Athletics help overcome those obstacles a lot more than lowering standards so a "dumb football player" to quote a common stereotype, can get in to school Just to remind you, the Gophers had 27 players named to the Big Ten academic team! How many of those players do you think woudn't have had the chance to go to college without athletics?

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none of them.

Quote: "Athletics help overcome those obstacles a lot more than lowering standards so a "dumb football player" to quote a common stereotype, can get in to school Just to remind you, the Gophers had 27 players named to the Big Ten academic team! How many of those players do you think woudn't have had the chance to go to college without athletics?"

The answer is everyone who WANTS to go to college in this country CAN go to college. They can do it the same way many people do it - community colleges for the first two years, lower-tuition state colleges, student loans, work study, and part-time jobs. The rationale for intercollegiate athletic programs has nothing to do with making a college degree available to students who otherwise would not be able to go to college.

To clarify, I will define or change "denied access" to "wouldn't have gone to college"

And I am referrring to all sports, all colleges across the US not just MN football. There are thousands of "student athletes" that rely on the sports part of the equation for the "access", that without it might mean deciding to work in a warehouse for the rest of your life.....