Unverified Voracity Has 100 Problems
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]
Mmmmm Hoke death spiral. You may have noticed your inbox get rather full of late:
— ace (@AceAnbender) July 13, 2021
I have repeatedly thought "didn't I just archive that?" in the past couple weeks. The fake people who want to write guest posts for this here site are hardly less persistent.
That's Ace's new site, by the way, explore it and see if you're interested.
One good thing about next year's team. Aidan Hutchinson, who makes PFF's top 50 returning players list:
29. EDGE AIDAN HUTCHINSON, MICHIGAN
Hutchinson played only three games in 2020 before suffering a season-ending injury, but the Wolverine seemed to be on his way to taking that next step forward on a mere 149 snaps (82.5 PFF grade). With a clean bill of health, he is quite easily among the best all-around defensive linemen in college football.
The 6-foot-6, 269-pounder is versatile, has incredible power behind his hands and is one of the more polished players at the position. For proof, look at his 2019 outing against Iowa when he became one of the few to post wins against 2020 Super Bowl champion Tristan Wirfs.
Hutchinson produced an 83.6 run-defense grade and 27 run stops along with a 76.0 pass-rush grade and 46 total pressures in 2019. Still, he never really put together a dominant performance from start to finish. We need to see more elite outings in 2021, and he easily has the potential to make that happen.
If Michigan can get some DTs next to him he could bust out. Otherwise, hello double teams.
Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. The NCAA's expert witness in the Alston trial is having a Falling Down moment in the aftermath of the NCAA's smackdown at the hands of the Supreme Court:
“I don’t mind that some people are jealous that Nick Saban gets so much money,” Heckman said during a recent hourlong telephone interview. “I personally don’t care if he has a private plane and flies to Monte Carlo. But I do think it is misleading to cast [college sports] as a labor market and to somehow think the goal of college is to make money off these athletes. I don’t see that as the goal.” …
Heckman decried Kavanaugh’s “rant” as a “bull—- opinion.”
“College is not an athletic market, and Wilken was irresponsible, and Kavanaugh was just insane in thinking this was an athletic market, and they were squeezing salaries down,” Heckman said. He says Kavanaugh was taken in by a handful of heart-tugging anecdotes about ill-treated college athletes, stories propagated by “yellow journalists” and “so-called sports economists.”
This guy has a Nobel Prize! For, like, economics! I could understand it if he had a Nobel Prize for shaping his opinions into pretzels that get him paid handsomely.
Take heart if you're lonely. You can be a millionaire with 2% body fat and still get dragged down, and then a Heisman winner can step into offer some fatherly advice.
Young fella you grown cut that shit out
— Charles Woodson (@CharlesWoodson) July 8, 2021
Maybe this is not actually encouraging. What will the rest of us with 3% body fat do? Nevermind.
Real free agency. Kofi Cockburn is returning to college but possibly not Illinois. Instead he may be going to Kentucky, which happened to hire two Illinois assistant coaches this offseason:
"He's the reason I went to Illinois," Cockburn said of Antigua. "When he left along with Chin Coleman, I decided to go in the portal to leave my options open.
"Kentucky? It's a serious option. Antigua is my guy. I'm going to consider them, but there [are] a lot of schools. I wasn't really focused on that while I was in the NBA draft. Now I can take my time and evaluate it better."
Seems pretty bad for Brad Underwood that he's got a team coming off a one seed and it seems like the most important thing about the Illinois program was an assistant coach. I think we can extrapolate some overlap between UK and Illinois recruiting practices and while UK is always going to be at the top of the heap, recruiting-wise, I wonder if Illinois is going to be hurt by NIL leveling out certain playing fields, particularly in Chicago.
This is a good time to have a head coach who isn't a beet-red screamer. Widely beloved Juwan Howard is going to have an easier time holding onto guys than the Underwood/Miller/McCaffrey mold of barely controlled dynamite. I'm not sure that was what Big Ten ADs were thinking when they leaned into the Howard model with their hiring decisions this offseason, but it should be helpful.
Soon there will be a draft and this will stop happening. Yet more scouting of Michigan's 2021 draft class. NHL.com on Luke Hughes:
"To me, the runway (for Luke) is there and the upside is almost limitless," Central Scouting senior manager David Gregory said. "When you put together the whole package of his size, skill and IQ, there's potential that he'll be the best of the Hughes brothers. But he could be the best of this draft too. He has that kind of ability and upside.
"This is a player I think would have really made some people start asking questions (about who should be drafted No. 1) if he had been able to finish the year."
Article also contains several entertaining stories about the Hughes brothers growing up.
Meanwhile, Corey Pronman has superlatives for the draft class. #1 skater: Hughes. #1 puck skills: Kent Johnson. #4 hockey sense: Owen Power. #1 compete level: Matthew Beniers. Is that good? Yes. Also, further indications that Power and Beniers want to return to school pending what happens at the draft. More from the Daily:
“For me, I’m definitely leaning towards coming back,” he told reporters on Thursday. “Got a really good group coming back, a lot of good players. We’re gonna get a real run at a national title, I think, and I definitely want to win a Big Ten championship. (Defenseman Owen Power) is kind of leaning towards coming back, so that’d be fun if he came back and we got kind of the whole crew back together and gave it another go.”
Still in believe-it-when-I-see-it mode here but dare to dream.
Etc.: Do you want an I Heart Huckabee's themed mediation on the very nature of soccer, man? Of course you do. PFF ranks every D1 quarterback situation. Michigan checks in… uh… 70th. Metroid is real! Strauss Mann signs with a Swedish league team. Interesting. Devante Jones on his decision to come to Michigan. College sports fandom: now less gross. Matt Turner, save guy doing save things.
Unless we break into the top four for CFL playoffs I think that day is coming regardless of who coaches the team. And even if we get into the playoffs unless we are there all the time like 'Bama or Clemson I think that day will come.
College football and its fans are just different now, and there are many more options. If I was building a stadium today I might make it 50K people like a pro stadium with tons of parking and tailgate amenities, lots of personal room, great wifi signal, and outstanding concessions.; acknowledging the fact that not as many people are going to come over time and the premium will be partially just the experience.
Bama has a hard time selling out. Watch one of their home games and you can see large swaths of empty seats and we all know how dominant they have been.
They’ve been too dominant. Who wants to go through gameday hassle to watch them beat the #5 team in the country by 40 points?
The NCAA has completely destroyed college football.
"Why do I settle for women that force me to pick up the pieces?"
I've read this four times and I still don't understand what it means. Can someone translate? Woodson's response indicates he knows exactly what it means.
AWB, of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t4OfCYoVj0
Really, I suspect that it means, pieces of his broken heart.
I assume he means his (fragile) heart gets broken on a routine basis by women being...scoundrels, scallywags, female bounders, or something?
Thanks, East and Sopwith. Makes perfect sense now.
This is a good time to have a head coach who isn't a beet-red screamer. Widely beloved Juwan Howard is going to have an easier time holding onto guys than the Underwood/Miller/McCaffrey mold of barely controlled dynamite.
That was one of the best attributes of Hoke. Howard seems to have perfected it with better actually coaching acumen. (Not picking on Hoke. I actually like him. I just don' think he's a D1 head coach).
Illinois basketball was always at its best when it dipped its toes into the shady waters of recruiting. The cleanest coaches they had recently, Bruce Weber and John Groce, produced the worst results. Remember, Bruce Weber's NCAA Championship run was with Bill Self's recruits.
To people who are complaining that "now" college football is semi-pro.
What was George Gipp's gpa at Notre Dame?
What was his address the year he died?
Who said this, to his coach at halftime, when asked if he cared about winning the game, "Look, Rock, I got $400 bet on this game and I'm not about to blow it"?
Sheesh.
Ah, the old lazy 'Barstool is misogynistic' take from Brian Cook, a man who *checks notes* has never hired a female employee at MGoBlog. I forgot how horribly they treat women with their female CEO, #1 female hosted podcast in the USA and several other female personalities on staff who all speak highly of their work environment. Jealousy doesn't look particularly great on you brother.
Bruh, women can absolutely contribute to misogyny. Having women on staff doesn't absolve you of misogyny just like having a black person on staff doesn't absolve you of racism. The podcast, and barstool in general, operates much like Hooters did/does. It panders to shitty men and capitalizes on them. I mean the name of the podcast is a direct reference to sex for fucks' sake. It's very clear what they are doing
Their popularity speak for itself. Tells a lot about you that you immediately defer to putting a label on people that if you're a fan of Barstool you're a "shitty man" like they have 0 female following. The $41 million they raised for small-businesses run by all races and genders was a terrible move too, what a racist/sexist/misogynistic company they run over there. Keep puffing out that chest like your values are above everyone else boss. #GoBlue
Well, he didn't say that "if you're a fan of Barstool you're a 'shitty man'"
And the $41M raised for small businesses is a totally irrelevant point to the argument.
[insert organization] raised huge amount of money for [insert seemingly benign cause that helps said organization with good PR and winning over supporters]
um, the biggest font on barstool's frontpage is a single word: "CHICKS."
Lol how many employees have even been here? Maybe fewer than 10 total. Most (all but Seth and Ace?) of those part time. Barstool currently has 540.
Ah, the old lazy 'Barstool is misogynistic' take from Brian Cook, a man who *checks notes* has never hired a female employee at MGoBlog. I forgot how horribly they treat women with their female CEO, #1 female hosted podcast in the USA and several other female personalities on staff who all speak highly of their work environment. Jealousy doesn't look particularly great on you brother.
You can be a millionaire with 2% body fat and still get dragged down, and then a Heisman winner can step into offer some fatherly advice.
Remember when we thought Jabrill Peppers would be the next Charles Woodson and they were the same height and we analyzed all those pictures of the two standing next to each other? Then, the Combine taught us that Woodson is 2 inches taller and time made us realize that Peppers was a great college player and swiss army knife, but Woodson is one of the best lock down corners of his generation and on a whole other level.
Maybe this is not actually encouraging. What will the rest of us with 3% body fat do? Nevermind.
Well, it's certainly helpful to be rich, famous, a professional athlete, and jacked. But, ultimately if you let them, any man can get hurt dating if you don't play your cards right. Dating is all about power and the right mindset, or at least projecting the right mind set, even if you're a wet noodle in private. All that's really needed is the right approach and the projection of confidence (without arrogance) and friendliness and almost any man within reason and get almost any woman within reason. But, project weakness, clingy-ness, and a lack of confidence, and even a jacked, rich, professional athletes can be taken advantage of by beautiful women.
Why would anyone be shocked at Heckman's stance? He's a University of Chicago economist. All of his colleagues are busy doing their best to manage the economies of fascist states. He's the office moderate because he took a job for years consulting for the NCAA instead of some wannabe Pinochet in South America.
The more interesting question is why anyone thinks Heckman is wrong. College athletes in fact aren't a "labor market." They're students engaged in an extracurricular activity. Yes, many of them are recruited to the schools, but then again really good students are recruited, too -- and paid in scholarship money and otherwise -- and no one sane would suggest that recruitment process is a "labor market." The fact that professors get paid to teach those students doesn't change that fact and therefore the fact that coaches get paid to coach those students in the extracurricular activity doesn't change that fact.
Now, it might be said that admission isn't charged to the public to watch high-SAT students learn freshman history and that's true, but that just shows that schools in fact *aren't* competing for students as labor and moreover, no one could argue with a straight face that charging $1.50 to get into the men's golf match against Purdue turns the men's golfers into "labor."
Yes, many of them are recruited to the schools, but then again really good students are recruited, too -- and paid in scholarship money and otherwise -- and no one sane would suggest that recruitment process is a "labor market."
But is there an organization similar to the NCAA that prevents the *really good* students from making money from their skillsets while on scholarship? If one of them wanted to open their own business while a college student, they would be free to do so. Athletes can't do the same.
Izzo doesn’t make the cut for barely controlled dynamite?
I mean, yeah, the University puts up institutional roadblocks for its athletic teams, what's another one with respect to NIL?
It's so obvious. Great Business School, with a new major for "self-marketing and branding". No, let's not do that, because it wasn't a thing in 1978. Or 1878.
Kudos, to whoever upthread brought it up though.....
Apparently the Jabrill tweet was a Drake lyric.
With regards to single game tickets and such. I've got a couple friends who normally scoop up unused tickets as fast as they can but are for now taking a wait and see approach to this Fall. In general my friends and relatives who went to most games at home are pretty luke warm on the time and money comittment and frankly saw the shitty product on the field last Fall. After having a full year to delve into other interests, weekends with long drives and shelling out 1000 bucks for one damn game have fallen way down the list of priorities.
Hutch is awesome and I believe a better player than Paye. But I think this defensive scheme change is really going to hurt him. He is built to be a 4-3 end. Stand up rush/edge guys typically have much more explosive (think Uche) fast twitch skills and 20-30 less pounds than Hutch. Starting him off the LOS and putting him in more coverage situations is the exact opposite of how we should use him. Not to mention the DE (whoever it will be) needing to hold ground and absorb double teams in front of him will be a major ? this year.
Okay, I LOL'd after reading the post and then going back and seeing the title again. Well done.
Chris Hinton may be the most important player on our D-line this season because of those potential double teams on Hutchinson (combined with the obvious uncertainty at DT). Time to see that 5-star talent
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