While the majority of Rivals.com sites (as well as sites on other networks) began selling premium content early this year, we've been waiting until we felt the timing was right. We feel that time is now, so we will begin producing premium content this weekend. Our primary concern was that we would be able to continue to provide a substantial amount of quality free content in addition to being able to provide unique and valuable premium content. Last spring we committed to always providing our current level of content (at that time) for free if/when we began selling premium content. That's why content such as game previews, game recaps, brief recruiting updates, Howard Pulley League coverage, Post of the Days, and the Gopher Dirt will remain free.

The addition of three new writers (James Vagle, Joe Thiegs, and Patrick Lethert - giving us 6 total) in the past six months makes us feel that we can now provide some quality premium content as well. Premium content (which will require a GopherHole.com Premium Ticket B or higher subscription to read - see below for more detail) will likely include detailed pre-game match-ups, post-game position grades, detailed player analysis, recruiting updates, interviews with players and coaches, and more. Please keep in mind (and bear with us) that this will be a work in progress. Much as the quality of this site has grown enormously over the past 5 years, the quality and quantity of our premium content will also grow.

We have also added a premium message board (we'll add more as demand dictates). This is in addition to our existing free message boards. Only users with a GopherHole.com subscription (see below for more detail) will be able to post and read messages on the premium board. A primary benefit of the premium message board is that there will be very few (hopefully almost no) flames, spam, and other undesirable posts. We will also be less liberal in acting to remove inappropriate posts and ban users who are repeat violators of our ground rules. While everybody (Gopher fan or not) will be allowed to subscribe, very few people will choose to pay a monthly fee just to irritate the readers. Even if an opposing fan is a premium subscriber to their own site's premium boards, they will still need to subscribe through GopherHole.com in order to post on our board(s).

The premium message board(s) is also where GopherHole.com staff will spend more of their time answering questions and reporting news. We'll continue to monitor and post on the free message boards as well, so don't worry about those becoming abandoned. We'll just be focusing more attention on the premium board(s) so that our subscribers feel like they're getting their money's worth.

Speaking of money, that's probably what many of you are most curious about. We feel the various subscription prices are quite reasonable and (at least for diehard Gopher fans) compare very favorably with the costs of other news and entertainment options. There are three Premium Ticket subscriptions for you to choose from.

- Access to all GopherHole.com premium content

- Access to all GopherHole.com premium message boards

- Access to all GopherHole.com premium content

- Access to all GopherHole.com premium message boards

- Access to all content from Rivals.com's recruiting experts

- Access to the Rivals.com recruiting database

- Access to all GopherHole.com premium content

- Access to all GopherHole.com premium message boards

- Access to all content from Rivals.com's recruiting experts

- Access to the Rivals.com recruiting database

- Access to all premium content from every site in the Rivals.com network

You can quickly and easily sign-up for any Premium Ticket package on the Premium Sign-Up page whenever you're ready.

While we know several of you will be upset with our decision to go with premium content, we ask that you consider (and hopefully understand) our position. As many of you are aware, advertising alone is no longer enough (not nearly enough) to support a website. This is evidenced by the dozens of dot.coms (including the original Rivals.com) which have gone bankrupt over the past year trying to survive on an advertising-based business model.

The only way for us to continue to grow GopherHole.com (which has been growing extremely rapidly the past two years) at this point in time is by adding premium content. Without it, we won't be able to accomplish our goal of becoming the source for all things Gopher.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to pose them on the message board or to e-mail us at premium@GopherHole.com.

Here is more information on premium content: