Outstate Interest In Gophers

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Duluthguy

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And you guys think the Twin Cities media is bad. I was sitting in the car waiting for my wife this morning and started tuning around on the radio. I came across a local sports station and, since they were talking football (pros), I stopped and listened for a few minutes. One of the two guys eventually brought up the Gophers and the other guy (mind you, this is a SPORTS station) said, "How did they do? I didn't even check the score."
 

They may call themselves a sports station.
 

Gopher fans don't realize Minnesota's lack of Identity means we aren't that interesting to the media...
 

I don't really have a problem with poor coverage of the Gophers in Duluth, they have a national championship football program up there to cover.
 

thailleagle said:
Gopher fans don't realize Minnesota's lack of Identity means we aren't that interesting to the media...
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What's far more likely is that the host spent his saturday at the dog park, shopping with his wife, and getting his oil changed. And he didn't really watch any sports. Sad that someone like that is behind the microphone on a station that claims to be sportstalk.

The game was on ESPN. Anyone who follows sports at all knows what happened at TCF on Saturday.
 


They've learned from the Twin Cities media. How the media covers the Gophers and how much interest there are in the Gophers are two quite different things.
 

Furthermore, Duluth is a hockey school. Some of UMD's fans are jealous of the U because we really are D-I, and they just get to play in D-I for one sport. I said some, not all. Some of them consider us "elitist" because we don't think they are our equal in anything but hockey. This is also true of the other hockey schools in the state.

In other states, the students at the D-II or D-III schools will cheer for the state's D-I team in addition to their own. I'm sure there are plenty of students at the state's D-II and D-III schools who turn the TV onto the Gophers when they get back from their own games, but there are some for whom the hockey rivalry trumps everything else.
 

RodentRampage said:
Furthermore, Duluth is a hockey school. Some of UMD's fans are jealous of the U because we really are D-I, and they just get to play in D-I for one sport. I said some, not all. Some of them consider us "elitist" because we don't think they are our equal in anything but hockey. This is also true of the other hockey schools in the state.

In other states, the students at the D-II or D-III schools will cheer for the state's D-I team in addition to their own. I'm sure there are plenty of students at the state's D-II and D-III schools who turn the TV onto the Gophers when they get back from their own games, but there are some for whom the hockey rivalry trumps everything else.
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You're right about the hockey, nothing says "inferiority complex" like the UMD's scoreboard reading, "BULLDOGS" vs. "UMTC"
 

Duluthguy, you should DEMAND better coverage from that radio station!
 



One definition of hubris is to demand more respect than you are entitled to. I'm happy to consider schools like Duluth to be a fine school and a rival in hockey. But they simply aren't our equal in sports other than hockey. We aren't UMTC. No one calls UMD "Minnesota", so I don't see why they feel the need to call us UMTC. But whatever makes them happy.

On D2football.com, there is a discussion of whether UMD could beat Minnesota. Lots of people sneering at Minnesota. But I noticed it was only fans from the hockey schools doing the sneering: UMD, Saint Cloud, and Mankato. Nothing from the fans of the other schools. They call us "elitist" for thinking we are at a higher level of competition, but we simply are.

Most of us were quite happy to cheer for UMD in the D-II football playoffs, because they are a team from our state. But I'm certainly under no obligation to cheer for them, and it doesn't make me very inclined to support them if they are going to sneer at us.

Again, I realize there are plenty of students at these schools who turn on the TV to the Gophers when their team isn't playing. It's just that there are a few loudmouths out there.

So, I think part of this is just a result of some of the fans of the hockey schools having an elevated sense of the status of their schools sports, and partly just that their media has learned from our media. I went to Bemidji State, and the TV would be tuned to Midwest Sports Channel to catch the Gophers. The media is a very poor measure for outstate interest. It could be interesting to see TV and radio ratings for the Gophers, especially if it could be broken down by city.
 

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