Kwity Paye on current events. Via Orion Sang:

"Being a black man in this country is seen as illegal," he said. "People suspect the worst.”

Paye, the son of an immigrant who escaped war-torn Liberia, was filled with sadness when he learned about Floyd, a 46-year-old black man in Minneapolis who died May 25 while handcuffed by police. …

"We’re protesting against police brutality and at these protests, there’s police brutality," he said. "We’re protesting against them and they’re showing us that they can’t even change. They can’t be for the people."

It begins. Covid screening has picked up seven Arkansas State players and a number of Alabama players somewhere between one and infinity:

Sources: Alabama football has at least 5 players test positive for COVID-19

Sources told BamaInsider on Thursday that as many as five Alabama players have tested positive for COVID-19

All of these cases are asymptomatic. That's good for the players but less good for spreading the disease to people who are more susceptible.

[After THE JUMP: chicken preparation methods I cannot do but Desmond Howard can]

Man can even spatchcock a chicken. I have been banned from cooking whole chickens after the Spatchcocking Incident Of 2014, the details of which are inappropriate to relay in this forum. Desmond Howard, though:

What’s the best meal you’ve made?

I’ve spatchcocked a chicken. I use this Traeger grill that I put it on, and it’s absolutely fantastic. It’s juicy. It’s tender. The skin comes out crisp, too. I put a rub on top of it, and I inject it so the inside is moist, too. It’s probably my favorite way to prepare chicken on the grill.

/kicks rocks

That's part of a long Athletic article from Nicole Auerbach in which Howard describes his recruitment, days at Michigan, and Heisman campaign. Here is an excerpt not about spatchcocking:

So, the infamous Heisman pose you struck against Ohio State. Walk me through the thought process behind that. Had you planned it?

No, I didn’t plan it. That was completely spontaneous. I had never done the pose before I crossed that goal line. A couple of teammates in the latter part of the season, when I became the frontrunner, would tell me, “Man, you gotta do something when you get into the end zone.” I’m thinking, this is Michigan. We do things the Michigan way. I’m not going to do anything except the Barry Sanders, hand the ball to the official and turn around and celebrate with my teammates.

Meanwhile at the Athletic…

Bodes unwell. The Athletic announced layoffs and salary cuts:

The Athletic is laying off nearly 8% of staff, 46 people, according to an internal memo obtained by Axios. … In a memo to the company, co-founder and CEO Alex Mather said that in addition to the layoffs, The Athletic will be implementing pay cuts across the staff, with most people being asked to take a 10% pay reduction for the rest of the year.

Meanwhile, Spencer Hall, Jason Kirk, Alex Kirschner, Natalie Weiner, Stephen White, and numerous others are gone from SB Nation. I am baffled by approximately all of that. Ominous.

The first shoe drops. The NCAA has given Oklahoma State a one-year postseason ban. That's a result of the FBI investigation that implicated a half-dozen schools including Kansas and Louisville, and per Matt Norlander it bodes unwell for the other schools involved:

Breaking: The NCAA has levied a one-year postseason ban against Oklahoma State’s men’s basketball program. This is the first program to receive punishments tied to the FBI investigation. OSU is far from the worst offender, so this is a kaboom.

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) June 5, 2020

The Cowboys got hit with one "Level 1"—the most severe—violation. Kansas is facing five and has adopted a posture of open defiance.

Oklahoma State just recruited Cade Cunningham, the #1 overall prospect in the class of 2020, by hiring his older brother as an assistant. That form of open graft is completely fine, but when Harbaugh hired Chris Partridge it led to a crazy rule that prohibits schools from recruiting players if they hire a high school coach. The NCAA: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The NBA draft will be late, and muddled. The NCAA doesn't really have a choice after the NBA announced that the draft would happen October 15th but announced no plans for a combine. They've set a withdrawal date:

The NCAA announced Thursday that either Aug. 3 or 10 days after a still-to-be-determined predraft NBA Draft combine, whichever is first, will be the deadline for players going through the predraft process to withdraw and return to college.

There is still a chance the NBA will not even hold a combine, which was to be held in May, but was postponed due to the coronavirus threat. If the NBA can't hold a combine or combine-type event until early August, then that would mean any player who participated in that would be in the draft pool for good.

This impacts Isaiah Livers, who isn't getting much draft buzz now but could have impressed. It's unlikely there's going to be any additional data to gather before the draft and thus an opportunity for Livers to put himself in a more draftable spot.

Transfer roulette gets even weirder. Until this wasn't impossible it was completely impossible:

Just in: All-Pac-12 punter Michael Turk will return to Arizona State.

He declared for NFL Draft after his sophomore season. Participated in NFL Combine. Signed with agent. Went undrafted.

But ASU appealed to NCAA and got his college eligibility restored.

— Doug Haller (@DougHaller) June 3, 2020

Arizona State punter went undrafted and was given back eligibility in large part due to COVID-19.

Very interesting when you start to consider the impact coronavirus could have on transfer waivers. https://t.co/RlxAiAjVEe

— Dylan Burkhardt (@umhoops) June 4, 2020

There are multiple eligibility-terminating events in there that we're apparently ignoring now. This is the reasoning, per 247:

Turk was granted this waiver due in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic preventing his participation in pro days, team visits or in-person workouts ahead of the draft. 

Pretty thin since Turk participated in the combine. The NCAA's waiver process remains an enigma, a black box of wonderment and randomness.

I don't have time for this guy. UNC's athletic director is mad as hell that the NCAA isn't… uh

North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham warned this week that athletes would be professionalized if current name, image and likeness legislation is adopted, a move he said would be against the core of the NCAA mission.

The AD of the school that had its accreditation come under question because of an entire department of fake classes athletes took advantage of at disproportionate rates is worried that the NCAA might be departing from its mission.

Exit Connor Levis. Levis signed with the WHL team that drafted him last year. That was Michigan's wobbliest commit—Levis had attended multiple camps in Kamloops. Further attrition is always possible, but Michigan's other top-end commits in 2020 are sheltered by the NTDP.

Etc.: That guy who let 70 protestors into his residence is a Michigan grad. College football coaches on their experiences with the police. Pitcher Isaiah Page's TikTok gets an article from Yahoo.