Gophers football notes:
Iowa athletic director Gary Barta is familiar with Gophers coach Jerry Kill’s program building history and he talked about the task at Minnesota prior to his Hawkeyes 22-21 loss on Saturday. “I think very highly of Jerry ─ his background,” Barta told Sports Headliners. “They (Kill and his staff) start a program that is struggling, and they brought it up to success each step of the way if you look at their history.
“The other thing they have is continuity. They have stayed together as a coaching staff. That builds trust.”
Barta, who is a Minnesota native, said the Gophers have a proud football tradition, a new facility (TCF Bank Stadium) and a new coach in Kill. “You have all the ingredients to create that (program building) foundation and do something special,” he said.
Barta said Iowa home football games generate about $100 million in economic activity each year in the greater Iowa City area.”
Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker, who was on the Gophers staff in the 1970s, was using a walker to get around in the press box on Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium. Parker had his right foot amputated last year.
Here are Sports Headliners’ weekly rankings of Big Ten Football teams: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Illinois, Iowa, Purdue, Northwestern, Minnesota and Indiana.
Businessofcollegesports.com reports that for school year 2009-10 the Gophers football program produced a profit of $14,888,989, finishing No. 25 nationally on a list ranking the profitability of major college football and basketball programs. The Gophers basketball program is among the more profitable in the country and placed No. 49 in the combined football-basketball rankings at $8,041,167.
The basketball programs at Louisville, Duke, North Carolina, Arizona, Ohio State, Syracuse, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Arkansas ranked ahead of the Gophers, according to the article posted in June of this year.