FanHouse Minnesota Football

(Gratuitous Gisele photo to the right. You're welcome.)

Victoria's Secret is a place where you can buy ... well, you probably already know. No need for an explanation.

On their website, you will find section that leads you to the PINK Collegiate Collection. On that page, there is a list of 33 colleges who have licensed apparel available.

Among the list of 33 is the University of Minnesota. However, someone at the school has apparently decided that it's not a good place for Gopher gear to be sold.

Seriously.

"We are not making a judgment in regards to Victoria's Secret," said University spokesman Dan Wolter. "We just don't feel it is in our institution's best interest right now."

Wolter said there was not enough discussion about how the company's image could affect the University's reputation and that upon review, "it was simply determined we should opt out of it."

It's not like we're talking about Gopher lingerie. Victoria's Secret has a shirt, sweats, a hoody, and a tote bag (read: purse) available. Perhaps the university was offended by the prices. The tote bag alone runs $24.50. Yikes.

FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.

ABOVE: Iowa State University's Jack Trice Stadium is the only Football Bowl Subdivision stadium named after an African-American.

It might have been an unfortunate accident of the sort which happened in the early days of football, before the players took the field in modern-day suits of armor.

It might have been an ugly, racially motivated attack which went further than its perpetrators intended.

It might have been a murder.

After 85 years, it's almost impossible to say just what happened on October 6, 1923, in Minneapolis. What is beyond dispute is that Jack Trice, the first African-American athlete at Iowa State, was trampled by at least three Minnesota players while executing a roll block. Though he did not appear seriously injured at the time, Trice suffered severe internal injuries and died two days later.

At the time, Trice's teammates and friends didn't think the trampling was intentional. Minnesota fans weren't so sure. They began chanting "We're sorry, Ames!" shortly after the play. (In the Midwest, it's common to refer to universities by their locations instead of their names.) When you look at what life was like for an African-American college athlete in the 1920s, you can't help but be a little suspicious.

Gophers coach Tim Brewster hasn't exactly had a good time lately.

He dismissed a highly-touted 2007 recruit from the team. Word leaked out that his highly-rated 2008 recruiting class may spring a leak. He made a really dumb comment in the newspaper. One of his top players in that class announced that he needs open-heart surgery.

The latest news: His own son is transferring.

"Clint Brewster has decided to transfer. I respect and admire Clint's decision to further his education and play football elsewhere."

Brewster, listed at 6-1, 195, originally made a verbal commitment to Illinois, but changed his mind after his father took over as Gophers coach. There has been no word on which schools he is considering.

Maybe Clint Brewster isn't good enough to play big-time college football. Ron Zook thought he was, but even the really good recruiters occasionally swing and miss.

But this can't be considered a good thing for Tim Brewster. If your own son bolts from your program, what kind of message does that send to everyone else? To be fair, however, you have to think Clint Brewster was going to get every shot at the starting job for the Gophers, no matter how fair Tim Brewster wanted the competition to be. If he couldn't win that job, his odds of starting for a different BCS school seem low.

Minnesotan Sam Maresh was a four-star linebacker who signed with the home-state Gophers last year. His signing is probably Tim Brewster's second-biggest accomplishment (recruiting or otherwise) in his dismal first year at Minnesota, with the first being the inexplicable acquisition of Indiana dual-threat quarterback and Army All-American Marqueis Gray.

Maresh was a real threat to step directly into the starting lineup on Minnesota's beleaguered defense. Unfortunately, now Maresh has bigger things on his mind:

Sam Maresh, a top Gophers football recruit from Champlin Park, needs open heart surgery to repair or replace his aortic valve, his father, Bill, said this morning in an e-mail to the Star Tribune. The defect could potentially be career-ending.

Sad. Gopher Nation has a comprehensive recap of the situation, with extra details on the likely outcomes.

It's no secret that Tim Brewster's first season at Minnesota was an unmitigated disaster.

Not only did his Gophers not win a Big Ten game, but they posted the worst record (1-11) in school history. They lost to I-AA (er, FCS) North Dakota State. They lost to Florida Atlantic. They almost lost back-to-back home games to MAC teams.

Not much to be proud of here.

To make matters worse, Brewster's highly-rated 2008 recruiting class may lose some players because of eligibility problems, and his prized find in 2007 has already been sent away.

While there is little chance that this year's Gophers will be worse than last year's, it's hard to imagine that Brewster is going to lead this team very far after the debut season he had.

Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press did a pretty nice interview with Brewster, and while there are some interesting points made about the future of Gopher football, the coach also managed to show his completely irrational side.

No one takes Sid Hartman seriously anymore.

Actually, some of us never started.

However, Sid (who writes for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, by the way) has enough of an audience that he can't throw this kind of note in his regular column and get away with it.

The big question about the Gophers football team's highly ranked recruiting class is how many of the players haven't passed their entrance tests or don't have the credits to gain admission to the university. The scholarships given to recruits include money for enrolling in summer school. Some people, who should be in the know, report that coach Tim Brewster is not happy with some of the decisions that the school's admissions office could make. More than a couple of the top recruits might not be admitted.

Shocking. Dude coaches a team to the worst record they've ever had (1-11), then recruits his tail off, only to find that at least a few of his recruits struggle to become eligible.

So much for that third-best class in the Big Ten, right Rivals?

The "all-talk" label really isn't going away from Mr. Brewster anytime soon, because fans here don't like it when they hear about players struggling to become eligible. After all, this ain't Ohio State*.

(* - A group of Michigan fans paid me very handsomely to type that last line. Sorry. I'm a sucker for the greenbacks.)

(Fist bump: Paging Jim Shikenjanski)

Well, not everything in college football. In this case, Minnesota AD Joel Maturi is referring to the new 'Gopher Points' program for deciding who gets to pay for what seats in Minnesota's new football stadium.

"Sure there has, but people are passionate about it; people who have been sitting on the 40-yard line don't want to pay anything extra," Maturi said. "I don't like it when my taxes go up, either. There has been an honest and open reaction, and I'm respectful of that.

"When people say to me 'It's about money,' I say to them, 'You're right, it is.' It's not that I like it; it's just the reality of what big-time college sports has become."

It is reality. Nearly every major football (and basketball) program has been moving to this system. There are the ticket prices and then there are the mandatory donations that escalate depending on how good the seat locations are. Then there are the 'tie-breakers' to determine who gets the seats based on which interested party has given more money to the athletic department and earned more points.

When big-talking Minnesota football coach Tim Brewster brought Floridian Harold Howell into the Gopher program last year, there were many superlatives from the coach.

Brewster called Howell "electrifying" and intimated Howell would be a big-time difference-maker for Minnesota.

One year later, Howell is gone.

Brewster dismissed Howell from the program Tuesday after one rocky season. The school announced the dismissal in a three-sentence release, saying Howell violated "academic and team guidelines."

A school spokesperson said Brewster had no further comment. A person who answered Howell's home phone hung up without comment.

No one is saying exactly why Howell left, but it's safe to say he won't be missed much on the football field. While he had some nice kick returns, he showed no ability to break tackles, and he had trouble with ball security.

His ballhandling skills were so poor that Brewster planned on moving Howell to cornerback this season. Sure, most teams would love to have cornerbacks who can make interceptions, but Brewster will take anything. The Gophers could line up four traffic cones in the secondary this season and still show improvement on defense.

FanHouse is counting down the 10 best, 10 worst, and 10 weirdest moments in Big Ten Football history, starting with the 10 best.

Above: Minnesota halfback Bruce Smith, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1941

1. Minnesota wins five national titles in eight years: You may be forgiven if you're snickering at the fact that my pick for the top moment in Big Ten football history (a) happened roughly seventy years ago, and (b) involves the Minnesota Golden Gophers. You may be forgiven, but you're wrong to snicker.

In the past one hundred years of college football, the Gophers of the 1934-1941 era are the only team to win five national championships in eight years (1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, and 1941) as well as the only team to win three titles in a row (1934-1936). You'd think that somewhere along the line Michigan, Alabama, Southern Cal, or Oklahoma would have had a comparable run, but they haven't. Coach Bernie Bierman's Gophers stand alone in college football history as the dynasty above all other dynasties. So why haven't you heard about them before?

Is your pension coughing up dust? Does the ATM say "You must be joking" whenever you try to make a withdrawal? Starting to wish you hadn't taken out that line of credit at First Consolidated Home Mortgage and Bait Shop? Be not afraid. There are still some tremendous bargains to be had in Big Ten football ... and some dangerous pitfalls for the unwary investor. It's still five months until the start of football season, but now is the time for you to do your due diligence on the opportunities available in Big Ten football this fall. Here's my list of buys, sells, and holds for 2008.

BUY: Minnesota. Now, let's get one thing clear. I'm not saying you should buy them as a potential 2008 Big Ten champion. I'm not even saying you should buy them as a bowl team. What I am saying is that they're bound to improve over their 1-11 record in 2007. The Gophers were a very young team last year who endured a lot of blowout losses but seemed to get better as the season went on. Too, they were in their share of really close games that just didn't go their way. But there's an X factor at work in 2008.