November 15, 2007
Minnesota inks home-and-home with Air Force
The Minnesota Gophers have signed a two-game agreement with Air Force to play a home-and-home series beginning in 2009.
"We knew how significant it would be to have a respected opponent, not only on the playing field but in the integrity of the program," Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi said.
Minnesota will play at Air Force on Sept. 1, 2012.
Marc Ryan, the Gophers associate athletic director who handles scheduling, had to shuffle games to finalize the agreement.
The 2009 schedule already was filled before the stadium agreement was completed. The agreement dictated that the Gophers could not open the season at home because of conflicts with the State Fair. Thus Minnesota moved the UNLV game to 2013 and the Miami (Ohio) game to 2014.The Gophers still need a road opponent to open the 2009 season.
These games will be the first two meetings between Minnesota and the Air Force Academy.
Comments:
Zac said:
posted on November 17, 2007 12:29 PM — 205.188.116.136 — link — abuse?
M GO BLUE, I know it may look that way, but I'd be very surprised if that was their reasoning. Air Force has traditionally put a lot of speed on the field. The have posed considerable match-up problems for a number of teams. Just ask TN from last season.
If MN is going to go that route, they already have NWstrn to play every year; they might just as well invite Baylor, Duke, and Vandy (OK, maybe not Vandy) for a couple home & home series. It certainly did work for UConn this year.
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M GO BLUE said:
posted on November 15, 2007 12:17 PM — 216.46.208.227 — link — abuse?I know what they are thinking....."an opponent we can beat"....sorry, but unless they turn things around real quick, the Air Force, will win the first game in TCF Bank stadium.