CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Happiness was all over the faces of members of the Gophers football program on the field at Bank of America Stadium after its 24-10 win over Virginia Tech in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Friday night. This was outside of the hype toward coach P.J. Fleck’s mayonnaise bath, which went viral with celeb rapper Flavor Flav lending a hand in the dousing. Among the joyful scenes, Minnesota assistant coaches had children in tow for the postgame party. Offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh’s son wore a custom maroon No. 16 jersey with the name “QuarterMax” on the back — an affectionate nod to the legacy left by record-setting senior Max Brosmer. Two of receivers coach Matt Simon’s kids were latched onto their dad — one riding on his shoulders, the other clinging to arms. Wives and other kids were not far behind. While the season has officially wrapped up, all coaches will be back in the office in short order. After a strong finish to an 8-5 season, the Gophers will continue to scour the NCAA transfer portal for impact players this weekend — defensive reinforcements at the top of the wish list — and they will refocus attention on the 2026 high school recruiting class early next week. This work ethic is considered necessary across college football, but especially at the U, where they need to overachieve to be successful in the ultra-competitive Big Ten Conference. The Gophers are already producing a higher return on investment. Over the previous two years, the Gophers’ name, image and likeness (NIL) funds have grown from next to nothing to tangible, but it is believed to still lag behind most of its Big Ten brethren. Minnesota’s football NIL total is approximately $2 to $2.5 million, the Pioneer Press learned during bowl week in North Carolina. Details of each program’s war chests have come out in dribs and drabs, but Illinois coach Bret Bielema spoke more freely on the subject than any his peers before the Illini won its 10th game this season, a Citrus Bowl victory over South Carolina. “We finished fifth in the league and I know the four teams that finished above us were all in the $15 million-plus … range or $20 million or $25 million, and we are literally right at $5 million,” Bielema said in an eye-opening amount of sharing. “There are three or four teams that are right after us that are two or three times more salary as us.” The top four teams were Big Ten champion Oregon, College Football Playoff semifinalists Ohio State and Penn State and surprising CFP first-rounder Indiana. Again, Minnesota is not among them in the NIL chart, but the Gophers in November beat the Illini 25-17 and fell in a razor thin 26-25 loss to Penn State. The U had a winning record in conference play (5-4) and finished in the top half of the 18-team mega conference. Fleck commends how the U’s NIL collective, Dinkytown Athletes, has been an “unbelievable” partner to work toward growing the fund. He has been emphasizing how the money is “real,” meaning what is promised to a student-athlete is fulfilled once they get or stay on campus, while pointing out that is not true at every program across the country. An element of the Gophers’ overachievement comes in retention of current players. Similar to last year, Minnesota has kept the overwhelming majority of starters and key contributors from 2024 into 2025. They have signed NIL contracts to lock it in. Only redshirt freshman offensive tackle Phillip Daniels has left the program; the Cincinnati native returned home in a transfer to Ohio State. During the Gophers’ second bye week in November, Gophers staff members took some of the focus off the ongoing season and worked to address which players were planning to stay and which were planning to leave. They worked with agents on how much compensation they would receive next year. “I’m really thankful we did that,” Fleck said. “That was a huge risk to do it at that point and take the focus off football and put the focus on our players, but it has paid off in the long run, where we had three to four weeks to put deals together, go back and fourth with agents.” The financial landscape will be shifting again with the addition of approximately $20 million in revenue to be shared directly by each schools to players. Starting this summer, that ballpark amount will be divvied up between football, basketball, volleyball and hockey teams. Some view this as a chance to achieve parity for programs in the Big Ten and SEC, which have the biggest pots of revenue in massive TV contracts. But Fleck sees that as the “biggest misconception.” Revenue sharing will create a floor for teams in the conference, he believes, while NIL will remain the unlimited sky. He sees a bigger program’s ability to outbid for players remaining in the game. Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle said on KFAN radio pregame show Thursday that every athletic department will be figuring out its allocations for the first time. They will be looking to see what competitors are doing, while knowing possible info will need to be taken with a grain of salt. He hopes each school’s revenue sharing figures will soon come with transparency on how it is dispersed. Gophers football general manager Gerrit Chernoff and director of player personnel Marcus Hendrickson spent part of last summer conducting dry runs of how revenue sharing might be distributed on its roster. They ran through scenarios: If they agree to pay Player X at the top end of a budgeted amount for him, how will that inversely affect compensation for Players Y or Z and so on? The Gophers have a fluid, working document to account how the pie will be cut and shifts within those amounts. But Fleck and Co., will continue to rely on their culture, which pride themselves on being about more than just football. “It’s all about what people value; it’s a lost word right now,” Fleck said. “For us, our players value an experience. They value teammates. They value relationships. They value development. They value connection. That is hard to find right now. I’m not saying we are perfect. We got our own challenges.” But so far, the Gophers have been climbing and clearing hurdles. Related Articles College Sports | P.J. 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