Here’s how awful Gophers football is against the spread

Minnesota has failed to cover the point spread in eight of its 10 games this season.

Oct 11, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck looks on before the game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Huntington Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

After last night's 29-point blowout loss at No. 8 Oregon, the Gophers moved to 2-7-1 against the point spread this season. There are only two FBS teams with a worse mark in the country, according to teamrankings.com.

For those who aren't sports betting experts, Minnesota's win/loss record is 6-4 this season, but it has failed to cover the point spread in eight of its 10 games this season. Covering a point spread is not what determines a team's success, but it does add context about how the Gophers have struggled to put together more than one or two complete games this season.

For those wondering, Minnesota is now 2-7-1 against the spread this season.

That's tied for 135th in FBS (out of 136) with UMass. The only team worse is Georgia State. Per @TeamRankings

v Buffalo (+16.5) ❌
(-43) v Northwestern State✅
@ Cal (+2.5)❌
v Rutgers (+3.5)❌
@ Ohio…

— Tony Liebert (@TonyLiebert) November 15, 2025

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Minnesota beat Buffalo by 13 points in Week 1, and then proceeded to obliterate Northwestern State by 66 points the following game. They failed to cover the final point spread against Cal, Rutgers and Ohio State before pushing the seven-point spread against Purdue. The Gophers' lone cover against a Power Conference team came in their upset win over Nebraska. They've been on the wrong end of the spread three weeks in a row against Iowa, Michigan State and Oregon.

Before the Saturday slate in Week 12, the only teams with a worse season-long mark were UMass at 2-8 and Georgia State at 1-8. Those teams both have zero outright wins against FBS teams this season.

Does the Gophers' record against the spread really matter? No, but it does show that a lot of their wins were far closer to becoming losses than their losses were to becoming wins. Minnesota deserves all six of its wins, but there's a realistic scenario where things could look a lot different at this point in the season.

Minnesota has two intruiging games left on its 2025 regular-season slate with a road trip to Wrigley Field to face Northwestern, and a pivotal rivlary game at Huntington Bank Stadium to finish the season against Wisconsin.

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