attendance dips are not rocket science

Sponsor Note. Did you ever want a lawyer who just appears in UVs because he's writing interesting things? Maybe someone who also has probity? Does anyone other than a lawyer ever have probity? I don't think so, but Richard Hoeg's got it in spades.

If you have or want a small business engage Mr. Hoeg for probity, and contracts, and incorporation, and all manner of legal whatnot.

Not a sponsor note. Here's a twitter thread from Hoeg on the early days of NIL and what looks like a full on gold-rush with little in the way of brakes:

And yet, according to this lawyer, either the restrictive language proposed *wasn't intended* to cover a circumstance where the owner of an entity tells a national media outlet he is arranging these payments to improve the team and institution, or *it's incapable* of doing so.

— Richard Hoeg (@HoegLaw) July 6, 2021

There's going to be a lot of sorting out to do. The much discussed Barstool NIL scheme is probably going to make folks ineligible since they're basically a sportsbook with some bolt-on frat bro misogyny these days. Unless legal incorporation fig leaves mean that it won't. I have some sympathy for NCAA compliance officers these days, who just got handed a bucket of cranky toddlers with no instructions.

[After THE JUMP: the specter of two cokes]

Everything is canceled. Buy reasonable amounts of toilet paper and only talk to people who can't hear you. Wash your hands. Listen to what state and local officials are saying. Stop putting your hands in my water (<—mostly applicable to area one-year-olds).

Trying to un-cancel themselves. I still had the condensed recap of the Maryland game in a tab, and I watched a bit of it. Simpson hit that floater over Sticks in the second half and it occurred to me that was close to the last thing Simpson did in a Michigan uniform. Tremendously sad that he and a bunch of other seniors have had their careers terminated before they got their shot.

A number of NCAA athletes are petitioning for an extra year of eligibility:

Wahrman pulled up Change.org and got to work. She created a petition, then shared it with teammates and friends. It quickly spread to friends of friends and beyond. Across Iowa’s campus, and then across others. It ticked past 1,000 digital signatures, then 5,000, then 10,000. Around 18 hours after its creation, it was at 90,000 and rapidly climbing.

It had begun to feel like a movement. And that evening on ESPN, UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma had given it a prominent voice.

The prospect of recompensed eligibility, Auriemma explained, had been raised even before the NCAA went nuclear. “My feeling is this,” the Hall of Famer said. “It’s an unprecedented event. So you have to take unprecedented measures.

“You can’t say this year never happened, and wipe away everything,” he continued. “Because some teams had amazing seasons, incredible accomplishments, they should not be diminished, and shouldn’t be wiped away.

“In terms of each individual, I would be in favor of allowing all those that were seniors, that have not had a chance to compete, not had a chance to play their spring season, they should be given another opportunity to play. Regardless of what that does to your scholarship count. And the NCAA should foot the bill for that.”

One of the nation’s most influential athletic directors supported the movement as well. "I would like to see us look seriously at providing an additional year of eligibility for student athletes who have lost the opportunity to compete,” Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione said. “Certainly that starts with the student athletes in their final year of eligibility. There’s not another way to get that back. I don’t know how many student athletes would come back and compete if they had an additional year of eligibility, that’s all speculative. But it’s certainly something we’re going to continue to discuss."

That's a logistical nightmare and a half. Teams have been planning for life without their seniors and even if you expand the allowable number of players you're disrupting minutes and roles pretty much everywhere. The number of transfers that would cause is potentially large.

Still might happen. It would be good press for an organization that desperately needs it, and it's got some high profile backers already. I wonder if smaller schools will nix it because they can't afford it, but the P5 can set some of their own rules now.

[After THE JUMP: old reliable Graham Couch]