You can find zealots who hold firmly to the notion that all things in a Big Ten athletic department should be sacrificed at the altar of football and men's basketball.
The lie of this theory – and the grandness of a state university supporting a full menu of athletics – was played out on Friday night behind the huge west wall of Williams Arena.
Inside the big arena, Richard Pitino's basketball Gophers were playing an exhibition game against Southwest Minnesota State that was going to reveal … well, basically zero concerning Pitino's third team in Minneapolis.
Behind the wall, in the Sports Pavilion, Hugh McCutcheon's fourth collection of volleyball Gophers was playing to hold first place in the Big Ten and to stick around its No. 4 national ranking.
The opponent was Michigan State, with Michigan following the Spartans into the Pavilion on Saturday night.
We complain much about the ineptitude of Gophers athletics, based on the long tradition of being nobodies in Big Ten football, and solidly in the second division more often than not in men's basketball.
Football and men's basketball (and men's hockey) are not all that matters, simply because they operate at a profit.
This is not business and capitalism. This is education and opportunity. If you're a talented athlete in a team sport, a university with the funding of Minnesota's should be proud to have you in one of its uniforms.