On Friday, Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle met with members of the Minnesota media to discuss the Golden Gophers' leadership change for the men's basketball program. Here's everything that Coyle said on Friday.

Good morning Doogie, it's good to see you. When we take a step back and you look at Minnesota, obviously you're close to our program, you see what we have in terms of the academic mission of the institution. You look at our athletic facilities, we have a state-of-the-art practice facility, state-of-the-art mental health resources, academic advising for our student-athletes.

We have a historic venue that we play in in terms of Williams Arena and obviously in the last two, three years, NIL has completely changed college athletics and as we move forward with a potential house settlement, you know, hopefully we'll have a decision in April. As we move forward with the potential house settlement, we feel like from an institutional NIL revenue perspective that we will put our basketball program in a very good position. I think our NIL has been competitive and we've done a good job in terms of the money we've raised for all of our sports programs, but Doogie, I'll add this.

I feel that our collective Dingytown Athletes does it the right way in terms of if a student-athlete has an agreement with Dingytown Athletes, that student-athlete has been paid. I would venture to say we're one of a handful of collectives that can say that. So again, I think the narrative is we go to NIL right away and the challenges we have, everybody's had challenges.

I think almost every roster in the Big Ten lost up to three student-athletes this past year due to NIL. Of course, Minnesota was one of those rosters too. And again, it's something that as we move forward, we feel like we'll be positioned to be in a much better spot as we move forward with NIL and the changing landscape of college athletics.

Yeah, Andy, it's nice to see you and thanks for taking time to join the call today.

You know, Andy, I can't tell you, President Cunningham, she arrived on our campus back in July, coming from the University of Michigan, having spent 27 years at that institution. She fully understands the value of athletics and what it means and how it can work closely with the academic side of the institution. So we have conversations with her.

Obviously, we have very clear expectations from our Board of Regents, from our President to run a balanced budget. So we've been making, you know, hard decisions within our Athletics Department in terms of some of the things we'll do as we move forward to help cover that cost of $20.5 million. But again, we feel very confident that we will be at that revenue share number.

And quite honestly, when you're in the Big Ten, when you're in the SEC, the A4 conferences, you've got to be at that $20.5 million to compete at a high level. So we feel like we will get there. We feel confident about that and feel like we'll give our program the best chance to succeed academically and athletically and socially.

Yeah, Marcus, it's nice to see you. Marcus, that's a great question. You're exactly right.

The transfer portal opens up on March 24th. If an institution makes a coaching change, I have the same understanding you do that the portal opens up immediately. Obviously, we have a very senior-driven roster this past year with the 10 seniors.

So we obviously are in conversations with our current student athletes, keeping them updated. I actually have talked to two of them. I have a call after this meeting actually with another student athlete.

So again, our goal is to be in constant communication with them. In terms of the timing, Marcus, for the search, obviously we want to be very efficient and move quickly because of the transfer portal, because of the collective NIL, because of the institutional NIL. We want to have those conversations quickly.

So we're trying to be very efficient and our goal is to move quickly as possible. So those young men on that team right now who are returning next year have a chance to spend time with that coach and also have a chance to talk to them about institutional NIL and how our collective works.

Yeah, thanks, Mike, for the question.

It's good to see you. You know, Michael, as I just mentioned, you know, college athletics is going through transformational changes right now and I think it's critically important that we can identify an individual who understands and embraces those challenges. You know, I think sometimes, you know, we make excuses, Mark Coyle included in that, and we're at a point now where we've got to figure out how to be competitive, how to compete at a hard or at a high level in the Big Ten.

It's incredibly hard, incredibly difficult. Our peers aren't slowing down and we've got to figure out a way to catch up to them on that side of it. So again, our ideal candidate will be somebody who has experience in this landscape, understands a changing landscape, and as I mentioned earlier, when the judge issues her final ruling regarding the house settlement, you know, that's when things really start to pick up and we get more clarity and what it's going to look like as we move forward.

So again, we want somebody who's on top of that. We want to make sure that we provide that coach with the resources they need to compete at a high level because that is our expectation. Thank you, Mark.

Yeah, Dave, it's a great question and, you know, there's no doubt, you know, we need somebody who embraces Minnesota.

You've heard me talk about this a lot, you know, doing it right in Minnesota matters, promoting our institution, promoting our athletics program, promoting the many benefits we have and we need somebody who's going to generate excitement. You know, at the end of the day, I'm a firm believer when you're winning games, people want to be a part of that, they come to those games, they support those games and again our job is to find somebody that can come in here, can, excuse me, can understand and adjust to the changing landscape of college athletics but at the same time continue to build our program. The Williams arena is completely different when there's huge crowds in there and that electricity, that atmosphere that is created by our fans is so critically important.

So again, that'll be something we look at as we move forward with our new coach. Thank you, Mark.

Yeah, Pierre, thank you for the question. That's a great question.

With respect to the timing, we've had four years of work and we could take a look and look at over those four years. And so I felt from a timing perspective, we had that four years. We had a good sample of what we looked like in non-conference, what we looked like in Big Ten play.

And again, I just felt the timing was right now for a change, given some of the transformations we're going through as an industry in college athletics. And then with respect to the second question, I think, Minnesota, we do not take for granted at all that we're a member of the Big Ten Conference. And selfishly, I feel like Minnesota, the Big Ten Conference is one of the most elite conferences out there.

You hear a lot of conversations with the Big Ten, the SEC. I've had a chance to attend AD meetings with the Big Ten and the SEC leaders with both commissioners. I think the A4 with the ACC and the Big 12.

There's no doubt that we're in a very competitive spot. And I can tell you, when we made the announcement and the change in leadership with our basketball program, we've gotten calls from coaches who want to be a part of that. They understand the value of the Big Ten.

They understand the value of Minnesota. What it means. Our media contracts are phenomenal in terms of the exposure we get and the exposure we can provide to student-athletes, as many of them have dreams to compete at the next level.

So again, we feel like we're in a very, very good spot. And to the last point of your question, you know, it's been frustrating, quite honestly, that we have not had more success in basketball. You know, I had a chance to work at Kentucky.

I had a chance to work at Syracuse. When I was the AD at Boise State, we went to a couple NCAA tournaments. And that's addicting.

You know, you want to get back to that experience. And so that's why this is such a critical hire for our department as we move forward, is how can we find somebody that can get us back to the NCAA tournament? You know, we have 38 opportunities to get to the NCAA tournament. There's 37 at-large spots.

There's the 1AQ spot for the Big Ten Conferences, if you win the conference tournament. So there are 38 ways we can get to the NCAA tournament. And in my heart, there's no doubt Minnesota can be one of those 38 teams every year to get in the NCAA tournament.

Well, Mike, obviously, you're so close to our program. And, you know, Ben and that staff gave us everything they had. Ben is a wonderful person.

He cares so deeply for Minnesota, the state, the city of Minneapolis, St. Paul. And being a former student athlete for us, he understands and he truly cares about this program. And when Dusty had a chance to be with him, when you all returned from the tournament, you know, I thanked him for his tireless work.

He worked endless hours. He did everything he could to make us competitive, to help us compete at a high level. And again, those are hard conversations you have to have.

They impact people, they impact families, they impact children. We don't take those decisions lightly. But again, you know, Ben, I'm just so grateful for the effort he gave us.

Like him, I'm disappointed that it didn't work out. But again, just really grateful for his time, the effort he gave us, the effort his staff gave us, all wonderful people who care deeply. And there's no doubt that there has a huge impact on them as they move forward.

"Yeah, Andy, you know, to be honest with you, Andy, you know, I've had conversations with many of our supporters, you know, those people who rank high in the Golden Gopher Fund and those people who may not have been able to contribute as much money yet to the Golden Gopher Fund.

And people were supportive of Ben. I think people recognized that we needed more consistency. You know, I talked earlier in the week about, you know, if you looked at our program over the last four years, we just have lacked consistency.

And I think to compete at a high level, you have to be consistent. You know, when you look at Michigan State, I have a lot of respect for Coach Izzo and that program and how many years he's been the head coach there. But they've been very, very consistent.

Wisconsin, they've been very, very consistent. You know, Illinois, when Coach Underwood got there, he's been very, very consistent since he's gotten there. And I think that consistency is the key.

So again, I didn't hear from a lot of donors who were like, oh my gosh, we need to do something right now. I did have conversations with some who expressed concern with the direction of the program. But again, people were very supportive of Ben, the student athletes.

And again, at the end of the day, I had to make a very difficult decision to change leadership and go in a different direction."

Yeah, well, Doogie, thanks.

You know, obviously, I've got great people back on campus right now. Julie Manning, Dusty Clements, Paul, and others, Jeremiah Carter, Kevin Goleman, Tricia Buckey, ect, Peyton Owens. I've got great colleagues who I work with and I've been able to, obviously, I'm here in Indianapolis with Selection Week, but I'm able to visit with coaches. I've been working closely with my staff back there. We've had some positive conversations with people and to Marcus's earlier question, I believe Marcus asked a question about the transfer portal, the March 24th date, and those type of things. So again, we want to be efficient. We want to move quickly.

But I've been able to have conversations with a handful of people, working closely with my staff to gather information to see who else might be out there that we need to talk to or visit with. But I'm very pleased with the conversations. And again, our goal is to move efficient as quickly as possible to get the right person to help this program compete at a high level.

Yeah, thanks, Marcus. So I fully agree with your comments about Dave Thorson. We have asked DaveWe asked Dave to stay with us during the interim period to serve and work with us with the student-athletes to help us make sure we continue to communicate with them and keep them in the loop as we go through this process.

And Ryan Livingston, you all know Ryan, our Director of Basketball Operations, Associate Athletics Director, has been with us I think 10 years, does a wonderful job. So we've asked those two to be with us as we work our way through this process and just really thankful for their professionalism and their expertise and guidance to work our way through this process. And with respect to a search firm, Marcus, at this time, we have not retained one.

That could change, but at this time, I've been working closely with Dusty, with Julie, my staff, and myself in terms of vetting our way through some coaches. But again, we've not made a decision on a search firm yet.

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