Remember When

Remember the good ole days of 2002 when Gopher sports were relevant? 

Football – team finished 8-5 and was the first of a 5 year run of postseason bowl games

Men’s Hoops – 19-14 (4^th place in the NIT) not great but considering the recent Haskins scandal it wasn’t so bad

Men’s Hockey – NCAA champions (also NCAA champs in 2003)

Wrestling - NCAA champions (also were NCAA champions in 2001 and 2007)

Men’s Baseball – made it to the NCAA tournament

Women’s Hoops – 25-6 12-4 in B1G; NCAA Sweet 16 (followed by a final 4 trip and another sweet 16)

Women’s Hockey – NCAA Frozen Four (NCAA champs in 2000, 2004, 2005)

Volleyball – 1^st in B1G; NCAA regional semifinal

Men’s Golf – NCAA champions

But look where we are 10 years later:

Football – 3-9 with an embarrassing loss to a South Dakota team  in its third year of D1 football

Men’s Hoops – 17-14 (did not even qualify for the NIT)

Men’s Hockey – 16-14-6 overall and lost in the first round of the WCHA tournament

Wrestling -  15-4-1 in dual meets and #5 in the USA coaches poll

Men’s Baseball – won the B1G tourney and almost advanced out of the NCAA regionals

Women’s Hoops – 12-18 with a B1G record of 4-12; no NIT invitation

Women’s Hockey – NCAA Quarterfinals

Volleyball – tied for 2^nd  in B1G; NCAA regional semifinal

Men’s Golf – 8^th in the B1G

Minnesota really has fallen in terms of its high profile athletics in the last 10 years.  The knee jerk reaction is to blame athletic director Joel Maturi.  After all, it is under his watch that this has occurred.  But I prefer to blame someone else.

President Robert Bruininks.

Prexy B is an enormous Joel Maturi supporter.  This is best illustrated in that he wanted to give Maturi a two year extension so Maturi would run the show for the first three years of the Kaler regime.  Bruininks points to the areas of joining the separate athletic departments, balancing the budget, Maturi’s love of all sports not just the ones that pay for the other ones, increased academic performance, no major violations or investigations from the NCAA and the construction of TCF Bank Stadium as Joel’s positive attributes.  I wouldn’t say that all of these items were achieved due to Maturi’s leadership and direction.  He was lucky that Jim Delany had the vision to create the Big Ten Network which has put a lot of cash into the athletic department coffers which helped balance the budget inspite of Maturi creating an extra $5 million in debt by extending Mason and Monson and then firing them the next year.  And it is much easier to improve academics when you stop allowing academically questionable athletes admittance to the school which limits the number of recruits coaches can bring in.  I’d hope that the number of NCAA investigations decreased because the teams are having more trouble competing so if we had to cheat to bring these guys in and keep them eligible then we would be a bigger joke than we currently are.

This is exactly what Prexy B wanted to achieve under his tenure given that we were still fresh off the academic scandal that embarrassed the U as well as facing a $30 million deficit back in 2002 and three sports were on the chopping block.  When Prexy B was named President of the U his goals were to make the U a top 3 public school in research, improve the graduate and professional programs and the U’s role in the state economy.  His focus is on the academic reputation and not on athletics, which isn’t surprising for a university president. 

But to allow the high profile sports to suffer is surprising.  There is a direct correlation between increased success on the field/hardwood/rink and increased fundraising for the university.  I also think Bruininks is catching the backlash of allowing the high profile sports to dip too much and cause embarrassment to alumni, students and fans.  He tries to distance himself from it but Prexy B was heavily involved in the coaching search that brought in Tim Brewster.  It was thought to be perfect, bring in a recruiter that doesn’t cost much money to sell the program and fill the new stadium and perhaps have our cake and eat it too.

It remains to be seen what approach incoming president Eric Kaler will take in his approach to athletics.  He may be an extension of the Bruininks vision and keep Joel on as the athletics are not an embarrassment to the academic community and are not needing to draw from the General Fund to balance the books.  Or Kaler could take a page from the Donna Shalala book and focus on a successful football program to help improve the visible success of the U to Minnesotans.

Either way I don’t think you can fault Maturi for doing exactly as he has been instructed.  Perhaps he might surprise us if he’s charged with bringing some pride and national recognition back to the revenue sports.