P.J. Fleck didn’t exactly whisper the warning in late September 2023. He came to his weekly in-season radio show with a blunt message for Minnesota fans: if they didn’t step up and put money into the program’s name, image and likeness efforts, the Gophers were going to get left behind.
Fleck said the roster churn was already real. Players had left for other schools, and he pointed directly to NIL as the reason.
“We had players that were here that are now gone and playing at another school that should be here playing right now - because [of] NIL,” Fleck said. “We didn’t pay him.
We didn’t pay him enough. That is the fact of life, and I know we all laugh at it, but that is a fact.
“So, if we want to keep players ... all these guys we have, they won’t be here next year,” Fleck continued. “I’m making sure everybody understands.
They won’t be here. We’ll be a Triple-A ballclub for somebody else.
That is the reality and the truth of the situation.”
The timing drew attention because it came only days after Minnesota coughed up a 31-10 lead in an overtime loss at Northwestern. Still, the warning landed for a reason: Fleck was describing where college football was headed, and the Gophers’ athletic department had to respond.
And it did. That radio appearance became a kind of rallying point for Minnesota’s NIL push, which picked up steam in the months that followed.
Now the challenge has only gotten bigger. Revenue sharing has raised the stakes by allowing schools to pay athletes directly, essentially creating a salary layer on top of NIL. For Minnesota, that means the pressure to stay competitive has only intensified, especially in the Big Ten, where some peers have far deeper pockets when all the money streams are combined.
That’s why the Gophers are right to get creative. In this version of college athletics, standing still is a fast way to fall behind.