B1G mailbag: Damage from boycott for Minnesota? Top five in '17?

Welcome to the pre-Christmas mailbag, the last one of 2016. We'll try to do better next year.

Until then:

@BennettESPN how much damage will Minnesota's situation cause for the program long term?

— Kyle Fjetland (@KyleFjetland) December 20, 2016

Brian Bennett: That's an excellent question.

Had the Golden Gophers gone through with their National Funding Holiday Bowl boycott, I think there could have been some serious lasting damage. The players may have been well-intentioned and had some legitimate complaints about due process. But the allegations against the 10 suspended players are pretty ugly. At the very least, there was some illicit and inappropriate behavior happening, if you read the…