Wikipedia:WikiProject College football/Peer review/Early history of Minnesota Golden Gophers football

Early history of Minnesota Golden Gophers football
I would like to know what rating this article deserves right now and suggestions on what could improve it. Gopherguy | Talk 20:33, 13 August 2007 (UTC) Good luck with the article! Johntex\talk 05:45, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I just glanced at it but since no one has replied yet I will give my first impressions:
 * 1) I think it is a good start and I applaud you for taking on the early history of a major team.
 * 2) I would consider re-titling the article. "early history" is vague and subjective.  Can you cap it to a specific period instead?
 * 3) The lead sounds rather casual to me. I would try to strike a more formal tone. Phrases like "Once the sport had taken off, it was only a matter of time" may not be the best choice for an encyclopedia article.
 * Thanks for checking it out!
 * As you might guess, it's a "labor of love". I wanted to improve the coverage of the Gophers and this seemed a logical place to start since there was virtually nothing about it in Wikipedia.
 * There is a similar page called Iowa Hawkeyes football from 1889 to 1897 out there, so there is some precedent. I debated how to name it and, along with suggestions from members of the College Football project, it has bounced between Minnesota Golden Gophers football before 1900, Birth of Minnesota Golden Gophers football and Early history of Minnesota Golden Gophers football.  The "before 1900" one wasn't picked because 1900 sounds like an arbitrary cut-off date (it isn't - in fact, Henry L. Williams coached his first of 22 seasons in 1900, making that a logical stop date for this page).  The current title won out because it is more in line with Wikipedia naming conventions than the "Birth" title.  I'd be open to changing it again if it would make things more clear.
 * I never did like the intro - I think after spending so much time writing the rest of the article, when it came time to put together the intro, I was kind of burned out. I'll definitely work on improving that - it should contain a high level discussion of the whole period including our membership in the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the Northwest and the creation of the Big Ten Conference.
 * Thanks for your suggestions! Gopherguy | Talk 16:56, 11 September 2007 (UTC)