Ohio State makes the Gophers look like a youth park league

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal has a nice comparison of athletics funding to preview the Gopher football team's game tomorrow. The budget for the U of M athletics department barely topped $69 million this year, compared to Ohio State's whopping $115.4 million spending cap.

Ohio State’s football team alone generates more than $60 million in annual revenue — almost as much as all 25 Gophers sports teams combined and more than many local companies including Shakopee-based Canterbury Park Holding Corp. ($54.2 million), Maple Grove-based Vascular Solutions Inc. ($52.9 million) and Eden Prairie-based Compellent Technologies Inc. ($51.2 million).

The U of M hopes its behemoth of a stadium set to debut in less than a year will rack up some serious dough for the department. Don't count on academia cheering on a team with the lowest freshman ACT scores in the conference. We haven't been convinced quite yet, but are hopeful it at least keeps the underage drunks contained on the campus rather than dispersing throughout downtown and disturbing everyone else. Go Gophs!