Charity Bowl time. Well, folks, time to liberate 42.27 plus processing fees from your wallets:

First: If you're a veteran, got it, I'm ADHD and got money to throw, well, here's the link for this year's festivities. No waiting, line's open: https://t.co/o1iCrV2S41

— BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL (@edsbs) April 25, 2022

Or you could be like Ethan Stark and drop approximately 7k by moving the decimal. I want to see a historic blowout this year. I expect it, really.

In or out. Hunter Dickinson announced a return yesterday; Moussa Diabate has now announced he's going through the draft process:

A statement from Moussa Diabate:

〽️ | #ProBlue | #ForCompetitorsOnly pic.twitter.com/uVVKKnRrcR

— Michigan Men's Basketball (@umichbball) April 25, 2022

Diabate will retain his eligibility. That's the smart move for a guy with all the physical potential in the world but little presence on mock drafts or even top 100 lists. He could easily catch someone's eye and get a first round guarantee; or he could get told if he does X and Y next year he'd be a clear lottery pick. I can't remember a stay or go decision more contingent on camp performances. Anonymous NBA scout:

“He is all over the board,” the scout said with a laugh. “The variance with him is crazy.”

SI's draft guy:

Michigan’s Moussa Diabate has entered the 2022 draft while maintaining eligibility to return, a source tells me. The 6’10” Diabate showed flashes of promise as a freshman. His physical tools, motor and defensive versatility give him a chance to rise in the predraft process.

— Jeremy Woo (@JeremyWoo) April 25, 2022

Caleb Houstan has announced nothing despite the NBA draft entry deadline passing at midnight last night. The NBA releases the list tomorrow at noon, so we won't have to wait long to find out whether he's also going through the process. I remain skeptical that Houstan is draft viable since last year he only did one thing well—stand-still shooting—and was very much a work in progress as a defender. It's frankly bizarre to me that draft rankings like CBS's have Houstan 37th and no Diabate.

If I had to bet I'd say that at least one team is willing to give Diabate a late first guarantee and that Houstan ends up returning. But [gestures in freezing cold Jordan Poole take].

Spicy meatball. Michigan's lined up a "neutral court" game with likely preseason #1 UNC in Charlotte, as part of a Nike thing called the "Jumpman Invitational." So that will be in addition to the ACC/B10 challenge game.

Well, it depends on your perspective. Aidan Hutchinson news of a sort:

Georgia's Travon Walker is now the consensus favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick at sportsbooks.

— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) April 25, 2022

That would leave Hutchinson available for the Detroit Lions at #2, which Lions fans probably want to happen but people who wisely stuffed their Lions fandom in the cellar years ago—hi—wish to avoid, lest Hutchinson become another Barry Sanders/Megatron/Suh/Stafford who toils pointlessly in silver and blue until retirement or a daring jailbreak.

Or he'll just be solid in the NFL. Various scouts/coaches Bruce Feldman talked to about the raft were somewhat skeptical: 

Defensive coach No. 1: I’m not sure he has quite the ceiling as a few of these guys, but his floor is very high. He’s the safest guy in the draft. Like if they take him, I don’t think anyone’s gonna be like, man, we fucked that pick up. I just don’t think when you watch the film, he doesn’t have that holy crap, how are we gonna block this guy? He just doesn’t have that one rare trait. He’s just a good, talented, high-effort football player.

Defensive coach No. 2: I wouldn’t take him there or even in the top four. He doesn’t have the arm length (32 1/8 inches). I don’t see the twitch. I don’t think he’s got explosiveness where we’d have to take him. There’s nothing special about him athletically to go that high.

This is going to be a fascinating production vs tools outcome since Walker had a total of 3 sacks in college—albeit as a 3-4 DE, a role that probably isn't his best.

Money items. The Big 10 is renegotiating its television contracts; FOX is going to continue to play a big role after expanding its ownership percentage of the BTN to 61%. Awful Announcing on the other networks in the running:

The likes of CBS, NBC, Turner, Amazon, Apple, and obviously ESPN are all very much in play here this time around. And unlike 2016, we may see more than just Fox and another company get a piece of Big Ten rights. As noted in the above quote from Ourand’s piece, it’s possible even three other companies could wind up with Big Ten packages.

That sounds grim, since the reason to slice off a portion of the Big Ten is to compel subscriptions to your streaming service. I think Ben Koo's take here is pretty likely to be accurate:

Thinking about this a bit more, I think Amazon and Apple are actually more  viable as Big Ten media partners than CBS and NBC at this point.  … What I imagine Amazon and Apple would by far be the most interested in is a largely uncontested viewing window. And what sticks out there is Friday night, where the Big Ten has already been putting games as part of their last deal. Amazon and Apple know it’s unlikely they’ll draw casual fans to their games if they are competing with five to fifteen other games competing on easier-to-access networks and cable TV. It’s just not as easy to get someone to change from cable, launch a streaming service, and find a game vs. just changing the channel between different games that are both on tv. But if Apple or Amazon had the only one game on at one time or maybe one of two or three games on a Friday night, that’s of way more value to them, as there is just less competition in that window.

So the theory here is that a tech giant will overpay for your Friday night MSU-Illinois games and hope to make their streaming option more compelling to subscribe to. This is unlikely to affect Michigan directly—IIRC their only Friday night game in recent history was due to a Minnesota Twins playoff game—but would still be annoying.

On the other hand:

The Big Ten has seen increased ratings for wrestling, women’s basketball, and hockey the past few years.  There are subscribers to be had like Minnesota for their hockey team or Iowa and Penn State for their wrestling team and a lot of other smaller pockets of fans out there who subscribe to the service. I think many fans would love BTN+ to be bundled/absorbed into an actual broader service like Amazon Prime or ESPN+, as opposed to being its own little service used a handful of times a year.

If that came coupled with any sort of production value increase it would be a godsend for those of us tired of watching hockey games where goals are scored with said goal literally not on the screen.

Etc.: Kyle Connor is having a banner season. Never good to be in the Chronicle of Higher Education with multiple pictures of men looking sheepish. Portal's impact on spring practice.