Gophers Get Crushed by Iowa -- Follow Trend of Mediocre Minnesota Football Teams

I'm not a college football fan at all -- I could not care less about the Gophers football team, even despite attending the University of Minnesota four years. Part of my distaste for the team has to do with how much I dislike college football in general -- the other part comes from how much of a joke the program has been for years. Oh what's that, the Gophers went to a bowl game last year? Oh that's a huge deal (sarcasm). There are 35 bowl games currently, meaning 70 teams participate. It's not a huge accomplishment to attend and lose the Meineke Car Care Bowl, especially considering the Gophers had a losing record at 6-7 and went 2-6 in the Big Ten. Today, the Gophers started their Big Ten schedule, essentially the mark of the "actual" season starting -- Minnesota played their first "actual" opponent in Iowa on Saturday. The Gophers got absolutely pounded by the Hawkeyes 23-7 at TCF Bank Stadium to fall to a 4-1 record. It looks like the promising start may have simply been a misrepresentation of the Gophers becoming relevant again in the Big Ten. [caption id="attachment_53739" align="aligncenter" width="438"] Ohio State Destroyed Florida A&M 76-0.[/caption] The Gophers started out the season 4-0 this year, a mark that had many fans excited this season was going to be different than the failures of the past. But with the undefeated record lies one of my biggest problems with college football -- most big school programs start the season playing powderpuff teams to pad their record. The first four weeks of the college season are literally unwatchable unless you like to watch completely uncompetitive football -- last week four teams scored 70+ points. Even watching your favorite college team destroy some low ranking school is barely entertaining. What's the fun in watching a blowout? For me, not much. And how do you really know how good your team is by watching them kill inferior programs? Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, like Alabama facing off against Johnny Manziel's Texas A&M, but like I said, that is by far the exception. Until college football starts kicking off its season with relevant opponents facing one another, I'll continue to not care. I know why the smaller schools schedule games against far superior opponents, it's hard to turn down million dollar pay days. But that doesn't make the game worth watching. That's why I spend my weekends watching the NFL, a level of competition far superior to college and matchups worth watching every week. Even if your favorite team is 0-3, the Vikings, the NFL still has so much more to offer in terms of quality football. Images via: ESPN