chris evans

80th percentile floaters are nice

More Alston takes. This is not a sponsor note, but Richard Hoeg is a law-talking guy with an hour long podcast episode on the NCAA's "slow-motion suicide":

At the Ringer, Rodger Sherman:

Time and time again, the NCAA refuses to budge, even as its position becomes more untenable. They fought NIL to the bitter end, determined to keep athletes from receiving outside money even after it became clear that the NCAA’s side would lose. They fought in the Supreme Court to keep athletes from getting money for academic purchases, even though their argument was clearly legally doomed. The NCAA’s board of governors recently gave president Mark Emmert—a man who has dug in deep to keep the NCAA’s model alive, while also making a lot of other mistakesa contract extension until 2025. (Like the Supreme Court’s decision, the choice to extend Emmert was also unanimous.) The NCAA remains fatalistically committed to its dying business model. They will happily drown, dragged to the bottom of the ocean with the last pennies they took from this system, rather than share a lifeboat with the athletes who play the games.

At CBS Sports, Matt Norlander:

The decision itself is not surprising. After the appeal for this case was heard in March, the questions and tones of the justices toward NCAA legal counsel indicated an anti-NCAA approach. The belief among the legal experts CBS Sports spoke with was that a 6-3 or perhaps even 7-2 decision in favor of Alston was most likely.

Instead, the NCAA got swept.

[After THE JUMP: Devante Jones floater time]

the "mom's retiring" leap [Patrick Barron]

The NFL Draft is a nice weekend because no matter how the football team did the previous season, Michigan fans can be assured they'll see a Wolverine achieve a professional dream every single year since 1938, a streak unmatched by any school except USC. That run continued in last weekend's 2021 edition, though Michigan State's 80-year streak was snapped. Tragic.

Michigan had eight players drafted, tied for the fifth-most of any college with Florida—Alabama and (sigh) Ohio State had the most with ten, followed by Georgia and Notre Dame. Other Big Ten programs with at least three selections were Penn State (6), Iowa (4), Northwestern (3, including two first-rounders), and Wisconsin (3). That number is a bit misleading in terms of how much talent the Wolverines fielded last season, though:

Sorry, sorry, this was supposed to be fun. Let's take a look at where the former Wolverines were picked and the roles they project to play at the next level.

DE Kwity Paye, Indianapolis Colts, Round 1, 21st overall

This is why the draft is worth watching:

Paye was the second defensive end off the board in what's considered a down year for edge rushers. He joins a solid Indianapolis front four that could use some pass-rushing pop from strongside end, where he'll be in competition to start right away—as a first-round pick he'll get every opportunity to take hold of the job.

His disciplined run defense and high-level athleticism should translate right away, and the expectation is his pass-rushing production will improve with development (and not playing in front of M's 2020 secondary). He'll at least be a consistent rotation player.

No matter what, Paye's estimated $7.3 million signing bonus will afford his mom plenty of leisure time.

[Hit THE JUMP]

helpless resignation [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

In the time of thumb-twiddling. Hey guys. Whole bunch of nothing going on. The Daily has you covered about the nothing going on with a timeline of events leading to the shutdown and what the implications are for various sports including men's and women's basketball.

Also there was the now-obligatory open letter asking to play:

The source of Hubaker’s frustration, though, was a sense that the MDHHS directive was poorly aimed.

“It’s foolish to think that the variant isn’t gonna be around in two weeks and it’s probably gonna be a bigger deal,” Hubaker told The Daily. “Because we’re the only sector of the community that’s being shut down right now. And we’re, in my opinion, the safest and have the strictest guidelines of anyone else in the community.

“So if we had it, the community definitely has it. And we’re worried, a lot of us are worried … and we’ve heard this two-week period thrown around a lot before and we’re worried that this isn’t gonna be a two-week thing.”

I completely understand the frustration since Michigan athletics will still be on pause when Michigan re-opens restaurants on February 1st, but the problem there is the latter. Fears about the pause extending past 14 days are probably unfounded. After that long anyone who has the B117 variant will have had enough incubation time for a test to show it, and further transmission is going to come from the community.

Some people were holding out hope that the MDHHS memo that caused the shutdown said "up to" 14 days and that things could get going faster, but it doesn't look like that's the case. MSU has rescheduled MBB games against Iowa and Nebraska for February 2nd and 3rd and has a game against PSU February 9th; previously they were scheduled to play Michigan February 6th.

Also off: a 1-vs-2 wrestling dual meet against Iowa.

I am still baffled that nobody from the Federal government on down didn't impose a mandatory quarantine. Nicholas Stoll in the Daily:

Currently, the U.K. is on the CDC’s list of countries with high-risk travelers, and travel from the U.K. to the United States is prohibited — with a few exceptions. Included within those exceptions are F-1 student visas and U.S. citizens returning to the states, one of which the U-M athlete almost certainly fell under.

Now, I’m not saying people should not be able to return home to the U.S. or that a student should not be able to visit their family in the U.K. and then come back. That’s not what inherently caused the B.1.1.7 outbreak in the athletic department. Instead, it’s the inability to enforce quarantining on individuals.

The CDC requires a negative COVID-19 test result one-to-three days prior to traveling back to the U.S., and although that is a good procedure, it is the only enforceable step and not impervious to the transmission of the virus, as proven by the U-M athlete. The CDC recommends a 14-day quarantine, but at every level, it has no power to actually enforce it.

What are we doing dot gif.

[After THE JUMP: achievement unlocked: Not Tennessee.]

by god I roped curling into this one 

they thought wrong

depth! variety! pass protection! they've got it all! 

good lord, penn state, leave some for everyone else

Michigan will have a lot of running backs next year 

in which my repeated threat to discuss hockey recruiting is made good upon 

best dang hamstring news you could get 

Possibly the most informative presser of Harbaugh's tenure

Chris Evans

Currently off the team, not out of school, for academic misconduct

Michigan lost to Ohio State, 62-39, on Saturday

A win could have set the course of Michigan's program for the remainder of Jim Harbaugh's tenure. Instead, the Wolverines were left to explain a stunning defeat.