Big 10 Football Tour

Week 3 took us to the west to the state of Minnesota.  Jeff & Drew would be the only ones making this trip, but they would be joined by Dan Lins, who would be the 8th guest to join the Big 10 tour.  After waking early on Friday morning, Jeff & Drew began their trip up to Minneapolis.  After finding that Dan's flight would be arriving late, they decided to stop in at the Leinenkugel Brewery.  Check out some of the highlights of their road trip HERE.

Sure you've heard of the new Twins stadium being built in Minneapolis, but did you know that the Gophers were getting new diggs as well.  Opened just a week earlier on September 12th, the Minnesota front office provided us with a private tour of the new stadium.  To check out some of what they showed us, click HERE.

Below that, you can see some of the great items they provided us to get us in the Golden Gopher spirit!

When we walked into TCF Bank stadium, we didn't expect a whole lot from the game.  Especially considering that the top ten ranked California Golden Bears were in town & Minnesota had struggled to get past Syracuse and Air Force.  We were very wrong and the Gophers had Cal seemingly beat in the 4th quarter, but then Jhavid Best took over scoring a total of 5 touchdowns.  To read about an extremely exciting game, click HERE!

It is a little challenging for a casual fan to find a tailgate around TCF Bank Stadiums, but luckily the Goal Line Club took us in for the day.  To read about our experience tailgating, click HERE!

Since we were in the city, there wasn't a whole lot of tailgating spots.  So we've got to hand the "Best Tailgate" honor to the Goal Line Club.  Their location, their people, and their mission most likely can't be beat.

During our stay in Minneapolis we decided to check out some of the highlights featured on the "Man vs Food" television show as well as check out the many many sights in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.  During the spring/summer/early fall months, there is no shortness of things to do (especially on any one of the 10,000 lakes). 

We think we spotted some fun sights for you to see when you visit Minneapolis.  To check them out, please click HERE!

As you'll read in our Tailgate section, we found that Minnesota fans hate Wisconsin and Iowa fans.  In polling these opposing fans, we found that the hate is not reciprocated.  Regardless, this shirt symbolized our learning for the weekend, and quite frankly it was funny.

Our runner up wasn't necessarily a Gopher shirt, but we also found it rather humorous. It essentially reads "I Minnesota Minnesota."

Our winner this week might have been involved in the building of TCF Bank Stadium.  Complete with Gopher suspenders and hard hat, his outfit definitely showed school spirit.  What will be interesting to see is if he still goes without sleeves when the real Minneapolis weather shows up.

Our other fans include the guy who had the school logo tattooed below his bicep.  Wonder why he choose the "M" over the smiling Gopher?

Lastly is Santa Claus.  While he wasn't wearing the Gopher colors, we didn't want to upset him by not including him on the blog (because he might withhold our presents ya know?)

Our vehicle of the trip was found while driving through St. Paul.  We felt that our lives might be in danger considering nothing was strapped down and anything could have fallen out of the bed of the truck in a matter of moments.

Our runner-up had an interesting cow cage attached.  It wasn't that big of a deal until we noticed that the owner had shoved all of the cows into the front half of the cage.   We're sure they were comfortable!

Another beautiful weekend, another great game & another long-tiring drive home.  We've now completed 25 % of the Big Ten schools. 

The professionalism/help shown by the Minnesota front office probably won't be beat over the balance of this tour.  We were so impressed by their generousity.

The fans at the game were just great, being respectful of the opposing fans (even though the Cal fans probably were not so nice).  They had some great chants, including counting the number of points after each score and certainly had to make TCF Bank Stadium an intimidating place to play for Cal.

We'd be hard-pressed to say much negative about our experience in Minneapolis.  Clearly the tailgating/parking situation at TCF Bank stadium could be improved.  While the frat houses are right down the street from the stadium, one would think that the school would create more opportunities for the students and casual fans to get out and tailgate.  The feedback we received led us to believe that only the large dollar donors received the all of the perks.  Rightfully so, but it's hard to get a feel for the real Gopher fans.

We were also a little disappointed by the sportsmanship displayed by the Gopher fans on their message boards.  They seem to have quite the hatred for their neighbors while their neighbors don't seem to duplicate that hatred. Maybe we'll see when we get to Wisconsin or Iowa.

College football fans should anticipate this program becoming a formidable opponent in years to come.  When recruits visit Minnesota and see this palace of a stadium, one would think they would be more inclined to play there.

Lins, Dan - getting us an inexpensive hotel.
Minnesota Front Office - providing us a private tour of TCF Bank Stadium and some Golden Gopher shirts.
Murphy, Jake - inviting us to join the Goal Line Club at their tailgate.