MEGAN DAVIS: Hello Gopher fans. It’s Megan Davis.
SARAH CUNNIFFE: Sarah Cunniffe.
DAVIS: With the Minnesota Daily, and you’re listening to the Gold Standard, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota sports. It’s gonna be a pretty light day. Men’s basketball played Wisconsin this weekend. Super interesting game. And then we have lots of Wisconsin matchups recently.
I’m not sure when this podcast will be out, but both the men and women’s teams in hockey play Wisconsin this weekend, so that’ll be super interesting. Obviously, the women’s team is in a little bit better of a standing than the men’s team, but the Wisconsin women’s team is currently ranked number one, and our Gophers women’s hockey team is at number three.
And the last time they played the Gophers dropped one game and then I think won one as well. So it, it’s always, you know, bitter rivalry between, I mean, it’s bitter rivalry both, both ways.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah.
DAVIS: But I think people have a lot of higher expectations for the women’s team. The only thing is, is that Olympic players are gone. So it’s kind of anybody’s game because Wisconsin had, they had more women’s player, women’s players go to the Olympics than the Gophers.
However, you know, obviously the Olympics takes the best of the best, so. The best on their team is gone and the best on our team is gone. I will say though, Kreisz on the women’s hockey team is staying and she would’ve made her Olympic team, but her Olympic team didn’t qualify, so she’ll be here.
CUNNIFFE: Abbey Murphy, she is going to be, I think, I don’t know. I know she is going to play for the USA team.
DAVIS: Oh yeah. She’ll be gone.
CUNNIFFE: But yeah, so she’s also like, obviously she’s put in a bunch of points for the women’s hockey team this season. I mean, just in general, like since her time being here. So, yeah, I’m wondering, and you know, she’s a standup player, like every single game.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: So I’m wondering. How that’s gonna look now that she is not going to be there this game.
DAVIS: Yeah, but I think, I think the gophers have a little bit of an edge because Kreisz will be here and she has, you know, the talent of an Olympic hockey player and from our other reporter, Samantha, she said that she’s going to assume captain while Murphy is gone.
And then the star player on the Wisconsin team, Laila Edwards, she will also be gone to play for women’s USA hockey. So kind of without the stars. I am super interested to see kind of what’s gonna go down and, but the men’s hockey, it’s a little bit different. The Gophers don’t have anyone going to the Olympics.
CUNNIFFE: Do you have any predictions for what the men’s hockey game is gonna look like?
DAVIS: I’m trying to think.
CUNNIFFE: They’re playing Friday and Saturday and I believe, yeah, the women’s hockey team is playing Friday and Saturday as well.
DAVIS: Because the, since like men and women’s hockey is so different. I believe all of the men’s players, they’re pulling from the NHL, so it’s like. I don’t think on Wisconsin anyone will be going as well. So I think it’s gonna be like pretty standard matchup between the two, you know, bitter fight, fun stuff.
But the way the Gophers have been kind of sluggish this year. Doesn’t bode well for a Wisconsin team that’s at full strength. So that’s kind of what the hockey looks like for this weekend. Do we wanna talk a little bit about what men’s basketball has been up to?
CUNNIFFE: Yeah. So Tuesday night, the Minnesota Golden Gophers played the Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center. Wisconsin came through with a 67-63 win over Minnesota. Wisconsin rallied from an 18 point deficit at halftime to win at the Kohl Center.
And Minnesota was winning at the beginning of the game, they jumped out with a big first half lead and they were up 35-17 at halftime. And also, we were gonna mention this, but Cade Tyson was not there.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: So the fact that they were able to take that early lead was impressive. And then it was sad to see Wisconsin coming through with that.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: Towards the end.
DAVIS: Yeah. Cade Tyson out with the ankle injury. I remember hearing that Medved said he would be questionable for the Wisconsin game, and they were gonna kind of reevaluate after that. So questionable means, you know, he’s not out for the season, so it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a very long-term injury.
He obviously tweaked something and you know, has to heal up a little bit, but hopefully he’ll be back in play. I don’t know against Michigan State due to the severity of the injury, which I’m still kind of unclear on, but it does sound like he will be back for some time later in the season.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah, the Golden Gophers will be playing Michigan State Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. and that is going to be here at home. So, it’ll be interesting to see, but just a quick shout out for standup players. So Bobby Durkin did lead the goers with 20 points, which was his highest of the season. And then Isaac Asuma added 16 points and then Langston Reynolds contributed 12 points.
DAVIS: Yeah, I was shocked when Bobby Durkin really like showed up and showed out for this game. I mean, he’s a player that’s been kind of, you know, good for the Gophers, but he never had this. Tyson was also the leader in minutes on the court, and so obviously Medved has to adjust, and I was shocked that Durkin did so well and like his shooting was incredibly efficient.
I think he made five of six three pointers. He just had, he was very high in shooting percentages. So that’s, that’s a good sign and I’m hoping that. You know, post this game. Yes, they lost to Wisconsin, who is a good men’s basketball team.
You know, it gives a little bit more time for maybe some of these bench players who we have very few of because of the injuries, to kind of develop a little bit more. And I think it will help Medved a lot, get the sense of like the chemistry. because obviously so far it’s just been Tyson on the floor, kinda working around his style of gameplay.
CUNNIFFE: Right.
DAVIS: And so without them there, you get to learn so much more about some of these other guys on the team who aren’t working around Tyson or kind of how they work when he’s not there.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah, it definitely gives them a chance to step up, I think, when they’re not relying on him to kind of take that lead.
DAVIS: Yeah, so men’s basketball, you know, kind of nothing. Obviously the Tyson injury is gonna completely change their game, but other than that. I’m glad they fought. You know, the only thing is, is that that second half, I think they came really strong out of the gate, which is fantastic.
You know, you need to, when your star player isn’t there, but you gotta keep it up, you know, if you’re gonna play those minutes, especially a team like Wisconsin who has so many strong shooters.
CUNNIFFE: That’s a good point. It was definitely tough for them to keep up their momentum coming back into the second half of the game.
DAVIS: So the women’s basketball team was also traveling, but they were in Pennsylvania to play Penn State. Had a great game. 87-66 was the final score. Not super surprised. The Penn State Women’s basketball team has been a little bit dicey over the years, so this was, I think, you know, gonna be one of their easier Big Ten wins.
I think the huge bright spot in this was Tori McKinney sophomore scoring 23 points, and then Mara Braun adding to that with 22. Super impressive because Braun, I mean obviously she was coming back from injury, so she was a little bit shaky in the beginning, but this is exactly the momentum kind of uptick you wanna see as we get closer and closer to the postseason to know that she’s fully recovered from that injury and that this is the Braun that everyone wants to see in the postseason.
And then Tori McKinney in her 23 points. Always impressive. I just remember her postseason run. Last year with the WBIT and just, you know, she was good throughout the season, but then that post-season jump, she just took it to another level and she was so consistent for them.
And it’s great to see her grow like this and to, we’re at that time where it’s, it’s time to take it to the next level because we got some really important games to play coming up and she’s young. And Grace Grocholski has been their star for so many, like she’s averaging the most points. And, you know, not a lot of the burden falls on her because the women’s basketball team is so consistent and very much point shares.
And you know, when one girl’s down, the next one takes the next step up. But it’s, it’s nice to see every once in a while, like, OK, Grocholski is gonna lead in points like the most. That doesn’t mean that their roster is not, does not have the depth to exist without her. They will play Purdue on Sunday.
Track and field season is here. They’ve started running again and doing that. I’ve heard a little bit about Annie Nabwe and she’s doing great. She had a kind of a sad end to her season last year, so she’s starting strong, which is good.
Ali Weimer also, she was suffering with injury last season, but she’s always a star on the track, so definitely someone to pay attention to seeing kind of what she’s doing, I believe as she’s coming back from injury.
Obviously baseball and softball season coming up very shortly. We don’t have any exciting news on that yet, but it’s definitely something that some of our later podcasts will be focused on.
CUNNIFFE: Stay tuned.
DAVIS: Yeah. A fun topic. Well, uh, kind of fun to kind of fill up the rest of this episode and just, you know, stray away from just doing basic. “Oh, here’s who scored this, here’s who scored that. You know, here’s some games to watch,” we have some NIL news.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah. So I really wanted to talk about this because obviously like we talked about last episode, there was very big news that Koi Perich is transferring. So this brought up a lot of talk about NIL money and what it means.
So just to clarify, because I know there’s a lot of talk out there about what it is and what it isn’t. So NIL basically allows athletes to monetize, like their social media posts, autographs, photos, sort of camps and clinics, merchandise, sponsorships especially. We see a lot of that.
DAVIS: If you’re a professional athlete, the most money you’re gonna make is likely coming from your NIL sponsorships. The NCAA did pass house, or it’s like, it’s a settlement House v. the NCAA, and it goes up each year. I think right now we’re sitting at around a little over 20 million.
The school gets to divvy up among athletes, but obviously I feel like we’ve, I might have talked about this a little bit earlier, like when the settlement actually passed the huge programs like Ohio State, Alabama, stuff like that, 20 million is not enough for all of their athletes. 20 million is barely enough for their football teams.
So to kind of sway people, which rumors, but I believe that a lot of these big programs are doing. Still doing it kind of under the table stuff. But another way to compensate would be showing the athlete kind of how much money they can make in NIL.
CUNNIFFE: For sure. And also, this is like, has become a very big thing right now because athletes are not just student athletes, they’re also like kind of influencers in a way.
DAVIS: Oh yeah. t’s like a, it’s a, it’s the very capitalistic concept of you are the business.
CUNNIFFE: Mm-hmm.
DAVIS: You have to sell yourself. Like if you want to make money in college sports, yes. Half of it, you know, the majority does come from your performance on the field, on the court, whatever. But another huge part, and I think especially with the people in smaller sports, is marketing yourself. Making yourself a business.
CUNNIFFE: And so kind of like what the issues that this does create is fans, there’s obviously a lot of roster changes and a lot of different transfer athletes and all of this. And for people that are growing up, you know, maybe rooting for their state schools team, this can create a lot of confusion regarding who is on the roster and like understanding which players are transferring, which are here, and all that stuff.
And so then it also like there can be differences in how much an athlete is making and that’s kind of why you see popular players to use a Minnesota example, I think Koi Perich is a good example, but you see popular players like that. He, as we said before, is definitely making a lot more NIL money.
And the reason why is because he’s grown so much with the fans and so he’s more profitable than other athletes sort of because he is like more known.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: And has a ton of sponsorships also.
DAVIS: Oh yeah. And it’s, I mean, it’s the same reason why athletes like Carson Beck, you know, University of Miami quarterback was in his seventh year of college, sixth or.
CUNNIFFE: Super senior.
DAVIS: And I remember, I think leading up to the college football championship game, a reporter was like, “So like, how’s classes?” And he is like, “I graduated two years ago.” He’s not in classes and yet he’s staying in college because he’s like, he, he knows.
CUNNIFFE: He’s making the most money there.
DAVIS: Yeah. He makes the most money there. And he knows that he’s not an NFL caliber quarterback.
CUNNIFFE: Right.
DAVIS: Like so very few people are.
CUNNIFFE: Mm-hmm.
DAVIS: Like, and that’s what so many college players are doing now, where it’s like, I would rather rake in as much money as I can in college because in the NFL nothing’s guaranteed.
CUNNIFFE: No, for sure. And yeah, we see that also, like you might be good playing in college athletics, but then it’s completely different situation once you go to the NFL if they do make it there.
DAVIS: Yeah. And also paycheck is, uh, it’s not tinier. I mean it is tinier, but like it’s still obviously enough to live on. But like I remember when Caitlin Clark obviously left Iowa to join the Indiana Fever.
So much of the conversation was. She’s making three times less than what, probably even more than that, like less than what she did in college. Because she was obviously raking it in college. Who wouldn’t, you know, sponsor Caitlin Clark.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah.
DAVIS: And then, which is the reason that WNBA is in a, trying to figure out their financial system, pays players dirt. Like actually, like they’re like especially on a rookie contract, I think like a high end rookie contract is making nothing. I wanna say it’s like 80k a year.
CUNNIFFE: It’s so different from what it is in the NBA and.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: Just like looking, it’s insane, like how much different it is.
DAVIS: So that’s another thing to monitor is because obviously Lynx are the seasons coming up, the WNBA season is coming up and none of the players, like all the WNBA players, most of them have been so outspoken of like, “No, we need a new contract.”
You guys are. I like, especially because the WNBA really kind of took off within the past couple years. They’re like, we need a new contract with the players. I know you guys are making more in revenue and you’re not sharing.
And then especially with Unrivaled, the women who chose to participate in Unrivaled, which is currently still going on, are making at least twice their WNBA salary. Which is crazy because it, it’s been around for what, two years now? And they already have like figured out how to pay these women more right than the WNBA who has existed since 1996. But anyway, the short tangent aside.
CUNNIFFE: I also wanna say that what we were kind of touching on before, like the NIL money now, because it does obviously market the athletes. So now athletes are expected to have more of a social media presence if they wanna be making more there.
And what I have kind of witnessed both in like seeing different interviews or interacting with different athletes is that some athletes really do not like the camera or really do not like to be interviewed. And so do you think like the athletes owe the fans anything? You know, if their, if their job is to be here and to compete in athletics.
But then they’re kind of like able in this position where they’re able to market their school and their team and themselves like as a player. Do you think that like they have a kind of a job and it’s part of their job as a student athlete to market themselves or to interact with people like that?
DAVIS: I would say absolutely not, because you know, these are humans and they’re getting scholarships or they’re getting the opportunity to play for this school because the school wants them there. And so that should be kind of done deal, you know?
CUNNIFFE: Yeah.
DAVIS: Uh, I know some athletics, it’s like, OK, you have to maintain, you don’t have to maintain like an online presence, but like you are representing the university. So if you do have an online presence, make sure it’s in line with the university’s beliefs and core values.
And I think that’s fine because it’s, it’s like. You know, you guys are both signing onto this deal. This person gets to play in college, but they’re playing with the University of Minnesota logo on them. So it makes sense that the university would want them to represent it well. However, that doesn’t mean they should have to advertise at all.
Because it’s, it’s not their job. However, I also do think it would be crazy if a student athlete came into, you know one of these Big Ten schools or an SEC school and expected to just kind of fall through the cracks and not be seen or not be interviewed because you’re at a giant school, people are gonna care what you do.
CUNNIFFE: Right? Yeah.
DAVIS: And to think that like, like I understand like maybe wanting to avoid it, which is completely fine, no problem with that. But I do think that fans think that athletes owe them something.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah.
DAVIS: And whether that’s OK or moral or whatever is, you know, a tight line to walk. I would say it would be kind of unreasonable to think that like a fan who dedicates their entire life to watching University of Minnesota sports isn’t gonna care or doesn’t have questions for these athletes that represent the school.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah. And you mentioned this before, but just about the difference between Minnesota and a school, even like within our conference, like Ohio State.
DAVIS: Mm-hmm.
CUNNIFFE: Do you think Minnesota is at a disadvantage right now in the NIL era compared to other Big Ten schools like Ohio State or like even SEC schools like Alabama?
DAVIS: I think I though NIL has introduced like some complications to the way things are run, and it’s also shown how little power the NCAA has. I don’t think it’s made that big of a change because I think Minnesota has been at a disadvantage since the sixties. Just like when college sports started to be taken more seriously and universities started placing more expectations on these players to win.
I mean, they obviously always had an expectation that they wanted to win with this school, but then it kind of became a university thing and then it became a fan thing. And as that stuff started to grow, money obviously is introduced and that’s been going on forever.
And so like, I mean, there’s been so many pieces written on why Nick Saban was so successful at Alabama, and a huge portion of it is that he had people giving money to these players.
CUNNIFFE: Right.
DAVIS: Like. It was just all under the table.
CUNNIFFE: Right.
DAVIS: Off the books, like.
CUNNIFFE: There’s definitely ways to get around it.
DAVIS: There were so many ways to get around it. And Minnesota has this strong and loyal fan base, but we don’t have the fan base with the deepest pockets.
CUNNIFFE: And do you think like, now that we’re seeing players transferring for different reasons, I know when players have transferred from Minnesota, people often speculate that it is mostly for NIL money, when in reality it might just be for, say they wanna be drafted or say they want to be recognized on a higher level or be associated with a different team. Do you think that, the NIL has created more of like a recruiting bidding war between schools?
DAVIS: A little bit, I would say. I mean, there’s always been a recruiting bidding war. Like honestly, if anything, I think NIL just puts it more in public perception. Of, they, the public now has more. Of an insight into what’s going on with these things rather than in the past, I think they’re, you know, they’re kept a little bit more in the dark and now this information is public and journalists have been writing about this like since forever.
But like the stories that get the most clicks are always to do with who’s getting money.
CUNNIFFE: For sure.
DAVIS: And how much money are they getting. Yeah, so that was a, that was a lovely discussion on NIL from us, and hopefully we can introduce some of these more like. Just more question based, you know, rather than.
CUNNIFFE: Conversation, debate, kind of yeah.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: For sure.
DAVIS: I think. I think it makes it a lot more interesting.
CUNNIFFE: I agree.
DAVIS: But this episode is by Megan Davis.
CUNNIFFE: Sarah Cunniffe.
DAVIS: And produced by Ceci Heinen. As always, we appreciate you listening in, and feel free to send us a message to our email inbox at [email protected] with any questions, comments or concerns.
I’m Megan Davis.
CUNNIFFE: I’m Sarah Cunniffe.
DAVIS: And this has been the Gold Standard.
