Gopher Uprising: Why Minnesota is a Team to Watch

Here's a question: If Iowa and Wisconsin can become national powers, as they have in recent years, why not Minnesota?

Really, why not Minnesota?

Especially now that promising new coach Tim Brewster is going to soon have a great new recruiting tool: TCF Bank Stadium, future home of the Golden Gophers.

The new on-campus, state-of-the-art stadium will give the Gophers their first true home in nearly 30 years and save them from playing in the characterless Metrodome, where they've been trapped for years. The stadium will also likely spark newfound interest in the Minnesota program and, potentially, allow the Gophers to out-recruit its regional rivals, most notably Iowa and Wisconsin. Both of those programs have risen to the Top 10 of late, so there's no reason why Minnesota -- especially with the benefit of a glitzy new stadium -- couldn't do the same.

The only bad news for the Gophers is that TCF Bank Stadium won't open until 2009, meaning that Gopher fans have to suffer through one more year of college football purgatory in the miserable Metrodome.

Once that new stadium is built, though, it will be a brand new day in Minnesota.

And then, for the first time in decades, the Gophers' Big Ten rivals will have to compete with a program that, once more, will be operating at the top of its game.

Photo: The most faithful Minnesota fans have made the trek to the Metrodome for Gophers games, but it's almost certain the team will enjoy more support at its new on-campus home, TCF Bank Stadium. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)