The 1972 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team represented the University of Minnesota in the 1972 Big Ten Conference football season. In their first year under head coach Cal Stoll, the Golden Gophers compiled a 4–7 record and were outscored by their opponents by a combined total of 304 to 185.^[1]

Fullback John King received the team's Most Valuable Player award. King was also named All-Big Ten first team. Defensive back Tim Alderson was named All-Big Ten second team. Offensive lineman Doug Kingsriter was named Academic All-Big Ten.^[2]

Total attendance for the season was 221,553, which averaged to 36,925. The season high for attendance was against Iowa.^[3]

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 16	at Indiana	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN	L 23–27	35,783
September 23	No. 3 Colorado*	Memorial Stadium Minneapolis, MN	L 6–38	42,703
September 30	at No. 7 Nebraska*	Memorial Stadium Lincoln, NE (rivalry)	L 0–49	76,217
October 7	Kansas*	Memorial Stadium Minneapolis, MN	L 28–34	31,505–31,595
October 14	Purdue	Memorial Stadium Minneapolis, MN	L 3–28	37,287
October 21	Iowa	Memorial Stadium Minneapolis, MN (rivalry)	W 43–14	44,196
October 28	at No. 5 Michigan	Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI (Little Brown Jug)	L 0–42	84,190	[4]
November 4	at No. 5 Ohio State	Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH	L 19–27	86,439
November 11	Northwestern	Memorial Stadium Minneapolis, MN	W 35–29	32,771
November 18	Michigan State	Memorial Stadium Minneapolis, MN	W 14–10	33,001
November 25	at Wisconsin	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI (rivalry)	W 14–6	60,746
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game