A Farce in Three Acts

tUMD 5, Frostbit Cows 4 (OT)/tUMD 4, Retrognathic Rodents 4 (RRs win in SO)

I love being right.

You might think it gets old, always being right, never making mistakes, but it doesn’t. I glow from within every time an opinion or a hunch is validated. It’s a mixture of smug self-satisfaction and serotonin.

I questioned the value of this “tournament” from the beginning. It is, as Biddco called it earlier this week, a glorified two-for-one. Meaning the Goofs got exactly what they always wanted. Lipstick on a pig, wolf in sheep’s closing, selling an outhouse and telling Dr. Phil it’s the Taj Mahal, it all boils down to the same thing: filling the coffers of the UMTC athletic department. Lining the pockets of a team against whom we recruit.

I think tUMD should pull out of this tournament, unless I see actual financial documents showing the revenue, expenses, and the proportion of revenue (total, not just ticket sales) distributed to each school, that prove tUMD is getting its fair share and is making a significant profit over a home game. I simply cannot take it on faith that it is worthwhile. Some folks within Bulldog Nation need to be disabused of the notion there is some sort of intangible value derived from “playing the Gophers.”

I asked Bruce Ciskie if he thought this tournament was good for our school, and he said it’s “exposure.” I’m not sure watching three periods plus an overtime with an analyst who is both openly cheering for the Goofies and openly mocking our team is the kind of exposure that would benefit our team. I’ll tell you what is good exposure for tUMD: a national championship and alumni in the NHL. Not listening to some washed-up glorified NHL benchwarmer sob into his ratty old Goldy Gopher stuffie because he didn’t feel like a dangerous hit on a defenseless player without the puck should go unpenalized, because OMGGOPHERSNUMBERONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where’s the benefit to tUMD in that?

The Dodge Holiday Classic Sequel can go on without tUMD. We can continue to sell out our arena for our NCHC opponents and our various non-conference opponents alike, and maybe throw our little brothers to the south a bone every once in awhile and let them run with the big dogs.