Minnesota's 2019 Team Has Been Awarded the Most Preposterous Rings in College Football History

Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck somehow continually finds ways to outdo himself and his unmatched corniness, but this Outback Bowl championship ring absolutely takes the cake for the most Fleck move of all-time.

Giving out bowl championship rings is common. Rivals will sometimes make fun of other teams for getting rings after winning largely meaningless bowl games, but I'm fine with it. If you go through the grind of an entire college football season and win a bowl game, you should be rewarded.

And Minnesota won a pretty big bowl game last year, defeating No. 12 Auburn in the Outback Bowl to cap off an 11-2 season. The Golden Gophers were a very good football team.

Which is why giving out a ring with a division championship trophy — for a division Minnesota tied and did not represent in the Big 10 Championship Game, having lost the head-to-head matchup to Wisconsin — and a commemoration of a visit from College Gameday is so ridiculous. And that's not to even mention the trophy of a "rivalry" with Penn State which is now played only once every three years.

If I was a player on a Minnesota team that won a bowl game against a traditional Southern college football power and the ring I received had the College Gameday logo on it, I'd be pretty pissed off. That makes your program look so ridiculous that it undermines any real accomplishments you actually had during that season.

Minnesota had its first 11-win season since 1904. Celebrate what you actually accomplished in a historic season rather than immortalizing the fact that Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit did a television show from your campus. James Madison should give out rings for hosting College Gameday, not Minnesota.

Never change, P.J. Fleck.