Ah ha ha. Minnesotans scratching their heads as to why students aren't going to the game.
Minnesota hasn't been able to field a decent college or pro football team in years.
When I was at the U, we played in the Metrodome. Probably the worst place to play a sport in the country. Its only redeeming quality was that you could buy beer there during the Gopher games.
I (and most all alumni) were SO HAPPY when they finally got an on-campus stadium, but we then had to cycle through a couple coaches, an AD, and so it always seems like Minnesota is trying to build their football program. I'm as happy as anyone that the Gophers are currently 3-0 in the B1G, but I don't think a last-minute win over Purdue is anything to brag about.
The hockey team, on the other hand, is consistently good, so I don't think it was a bad idea to require football ticket purchase for students in order to get hockey or basketball tickets. Especially since student football tickets are pretty cheap (especially compared to other D1 schools).
I DO hope Gopher football continues to improve, but I'm not surprised attendance isn't what it is at some other campuses. Also, there are usually a fair amount of other things to do in Minneapolis/St Paul metro area on a Saturday. Gopher football is not the only game in town. ;)

The Rose Bowl is beautiful and iconic, but it's about 25 miles from UCLA. It was almost always an hour to get there. The sorority bus rides were usually pretty fun there, but typically pretty exhausting on the way back.

My friends school was D2 champs in football a number of years in a row, the problem is the the students who were interested in football usually stayed at home and watched the D1 schools play. Most students didn't go to the games, even with a winning team and the school decided to cut the program. Really sad for such a good school. I went to a couple of their games, even with the winning it was not much fun. It happens because of the student body. If you were interested in football here you didn't go to that school.

In a lot of places attendance at kickoff isn't a problem, but keeping students (and others) in the stands through 4 quarters is a challenge. Unless the game is both close til the end and with a lot on the line a good chunk of the crowd is gone by halftime and by the end of the game you can be down to 25% from a sellout.
You may recall that earlier this year Nick Saban threatened to revoke the Greeks' reserved block seats privilege at Alabama if they didn't start staying through to the end -- and this is at a Top 10 ranked D-I SEC school.
The only school I know that really emphasizes staying til the end no matter what is Texas A&M.