Go Gophers

Craig Cox [“The Long Bomb,” October] states that the Gophers generate “less revenue in a season that the University of Michigan rakes in during a couple of home games.” This would seem to imply that Michigan has several times the revenue that the Gophers have. Later, he states that Michigan generates twice what the Gophers generate. It is true this is a disparity, but it’s not as great as he initially makes it appear. The author admits that the football program makes money, and these revenues fund the other sports programs. That seems to stand in contrast to other parts of the article, which seems to imply that the football is somehow stealing revenues from other sports. Perhaps he is familiar with the story of the goose that laid the golden egg? Is there evidence that revenues from football, hockey and basketball benefit the entire athletic department? Yes. The money the athletic department has comes from the sports that generate more than they spend. If these revenue-generating sports were canceled, there would be less money available for the whole athletic department.
If people want to donate their own money to build an on-campus stadium, I don’t see the problem with it. The Gophers have a terrible lease at the Metrodome. A new stadium would certainly bring in more revenue. If he is going to call supporters of an on-campus stadium deluded, at least he could have the courtesy of saying why he thinks it is a deluded idea. Much of his argument centers on the Gophers’ lack of success. However, the Gophers have been to bowl games three out of the last four years, and will go to another bowl game this year. It has not been such a long time since just getting to a bowl game—any bowl game—was a mere dream. It is a sign of success that expectations have been raised so much. He also suggests that college football could reduce the number of scholarships. He may not have noticed, but the NCAA has already done this, with the result of increased parity in Division I football.

Robert Lent
Minneapolis

Congratulations to Craig Cox for his article about what the esteemed writer-broadcaster Frank Deford once called “the cesspool of college athletics.” Along with “military intelligence,” “business ethics,” and “President Bush,” the term “student-athlete” is one of the great oxymorons of our time (emphasis on “morons”). Instead of wasting valuable resources on athletics, the university should concentrate on trying to educate our young people and prepare them to take their places in society. Instead of building stadiums, we should be building more classrooms. Instead of vastly overpaid coaches, we should be spending money to hire and retain the best possible faculty and making tuition as student-accessible as possible. I wouldn’t care if the U won every game in every sport; Minnesota no longer can afford bigtime college athletics. If it’s unrealistic to expect total abandonment of the intercollegiate program, the U at the very least should downgrade from the Big Ten to a much less demanding and costly conference or a modest independent schedule. The Metrodome may not be an ideal facility for the Gophers, the Twins, or the Vikings, but I believe it’s financially stable. For Gopher football fans who yearn for those long-gone golden autumn Saturday afternoons on campus, paint a mural on the ceiling. The Rake would be doing its readers a great service by corroborating Cox’s article with a reprint of Deford’s historic and quite accurate appraisal of college athletics. We know for sure the booster-minded Star Tribune and Pioneer Press never will.
Willard B. Shapira
Minneapolis

One element of downsizing college football that might enable smaller rosters would be a rule change that mirrors college football in the 1950s. For a period of some years, only one substitution was allowed per down. While this provided for a small measure of specialization (e.g., a punter on fourth down, a fragile quarterback who shouldn’t play defense), it basically required most players to line up on both offense and defense. The net result would be a need for smaller rosters and some interesting coaching challenges when you don’t have the luxury of shuttling in well-rested specialists. But frankly, anything that eliminates jobs and roster spots will be resisted by the coaching and athletic department fraternity.
Jeff Peterson
Minneapolis