Unverified Voracity Waits For Franz
RIP baseball. It was fun!
Memories that will last a lifetime.
— Michigan Baseball (@umichbaseball) June 27, 2019
We are so proud of #Team153! pic.twitter.com/faayUvnYz8
Franz time. Alba Berlin's season is over, and now FranzWatch begins.
Last thing I was told by someone close to Franz Wagner is that he's still undecided. He's supposed to sit down with his family. A decision should be made "very soon."
— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) June 24, 2019
Franz would obviously be a big deal, especially as he's started to become a real contributor to Alba:
Here's Franz Wagner, not your typical 17-year-old, scoring 14 points on 100% shooting in Game 2 of the BBL finals against an Euroleague team in Bayern Munich. He also hit a couple of clutch shots in the 4th quarter. Not afraid of the moment. pic.twitter.com/fGGTwpT11R
— NBADraftProspects (@draftprosnba) June 21, 2019
As a reminder, this is a league where a 24-year-old Derrick Walton can't get on the court. Wagner is reportedly up to 6'9" and headed for the first round of the draft. He would be a gamechanger for Juwan Howard's first team.
[After THE JUMP: keeping various baseball persons]
Also in recruiting. 2020 GA C Walker Kessler's eliminated Georgia, his ancestral homestead, and seems about as interested in Michigan as he was previously:
Chatted with Woodward Center Walker Kessler for a bit after his game vs McEachern. He loves the hire of Juwan Howard at Michigan and the idea of a coach who played big with such NBA experience. He says he and his family have also decided that UGA is not a good fit for him. pic.twitter.com/2lGujhgaH0
— HoopSeen Georgia (@HoopSeenGA) June 22, 2019
That's from a Georgia-based scouting service that would have no particular reason to ask Kessler about Juwan Howard, might mean a little something.
Go, bill, go. A California bill that would restore the name and image rights of college athletes is zipping through a stunning number of committees:
Early this year, the Majority Whip of the California state Senate, Nancy Skinner, introduced the “Fair Pay to Play Act” (Senate Bill 206) which would prohibit California colleges from preventing their athletes from earning NIL money. Her bill, which quickly received bipartisan sponsorship, directly challenged the NCAA’s own NIL prohibition (more about the NCAA’s views about the bill soon). Remarkably, on May 22, the full Senate approved the bill by a lopsided margin of 31-4.
On Tuesday the first committee in the California State Assembly to consider the bill, the Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media Committee, approved it unanimously, 5-0. It now goes to the Higher Education Committee for a vote on July 9, and if approved then, from there to the Appropriations Committee, which if it approves, sends the bill to the floor sometime in August, or before the California legislature closes its 2019 session in mid-September.
So this thing has to get through 5 different votes and is through 2 with a total score of 36-4. It's happening. Mark Emmert roused himself from his Scrooge McDuck vault to threaten the California state government with reprisals against NCAA schools in the state, but law-talking guys say that's gonna be a no:
As a private trade association, the National Collegiate Athletic Association is generally free to adopt any bylaws that it wants. But there are two important caveats to the general principle of non-interference with trade association rules. First, a trade association such as the NCAA may not enforce any bylaw that violates federal or state law. Second, a trade association must enact its bylaws in good faith, and in compliance with the "basic rudiments of due process."
With these two caveats in mind, there is a strong argument that any attempt by the NCAA to ban California member colleges from competing in postseason events based on their compliance with state laws around names, images and likeness would violate both federal antitrust laws and state common-law rights.
The likely impact of California passing this bill would be the NCAA leaping into a lawsuit that they lose and then a cascade of identical bills across the country, followed by the Formation of the Michigan Name And Image Money Cannon Committee. LFG.
This is what we're up against. LSU doing LSU things:
An LSU booster named John Paul Funes, who pleaded guilty to stealing more than a half-million dollars from a foundation where he worked as a fundraiser, paid $180,000 to a man that Yahoo Sports confirmed on Friday is the father of former Tigers star lineman Vadal Alexander.
In federal documents, a man identified as “individual C” allegedly received “approximately $180,000 in Foundation Funds” from Funes. That man is James Alexander, the father of Vadal Alexander. His identity was first reported Thursday by the Baton Rouge Business Report.
LSU will not get meaningfully punished for this, so what's the point of banning payments only for guys who go to schools that bother to follow the rules?
Baseball retention. Eric Bakich on the inevitable rumors he's headed elsewhere:
Bakich made one thing clear after his players went through a lifting session at Creighton University on Saturday — he’s not going anywhere.
“Where am I going? You got a job? Are you hiring me? Huh?” Bakich said, laughing, before boarding the team bus and turning serious regarding his future.
“I love Michigan, and I love the Block M, and most importantly, I love the kids on that bus. I wanted to see this through. I didn’t want anyone else to coach them. I wanted to be here for this type of run. Having tasted this in 17 years, these guys have never tasted it. Once you taste it, you want it every year. Yeah, we do need some help, but I know that this is gonna get us over the hump.
"An experience like this is going to move the needle and get us over the hump to where our program is here to stay and we’re here to build.”
There's always an element of "I have to say this to recruit" in any of these statements, so don't take that as gospel. It's certain that Bakich will be around next year since the baseball coaching carousel has already come to a halt, and he's already turned down Stanford.
Also in "let's keep this guy," former Michigan pitcher and now pitching coach Chris Fetter:
Fetter thought he was well-versed on the analytical side of the game – until he joined the Dodgers. With L.A., he learned how to evaluate numbers with the most advanced technology, and has made that a focal point of the Wolverines’ pitching development.
At the time Fetter returned, U-M was in the final stages of readying the TrackMan, which measures things like spin rate and launch angle, after the legal red tape on how the information would be disseminated was unwrapped.
“With their arsenals, we just tried to build each individual player and just kind of iron those things out,” Fetter said. “Just help them understand who they are to a greater level.
“If I know what pitches I have that separate me from the average, then I should go out to the mound and be the most confident version of myself.” …
“It’s a direct correlation to having Coach Fetter working with me day-by-day,” Henry said. “I cannot stress enough how much I’ve learned from that guy. I sound like a broken record right now, but seriously, I mean every bit of it.
Fetter says "“I would love to stay here for as long as they’ll have me," and, uh, yes, here is a Ricewood coupon. Stick around.
Michigan wins Directors Cup (Non-Stanford Edition)! Just name it the Stanford Cup and give it to us.
Stanford wins 25th consecutive Directors’ Cup, signifying nation’s top athletic program.
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) June 28, 2019
Top 20:
Stanford
Michigan
Florida
Texas
USC
UCLA
Florida State
Virginia
Duke
North Carolina
LSU
Ohio State
Penn State
Kentucky
Texas A&M
Wisconsin
Notre Dame
Cal
Arizona State
Minnesota
It is ours. Stanford does not exist. It was expunged after Ed Feng's crimes became public knowledge.
Hockey things happened. Been a while since there's been a UV, and in the interim various hockey things happened. First the NHL draft. Four guys were taken:
- D Cam York went 14th overall to the Flyers.
- F Johnny Beecher went at the tail end of the first round (30th) to Boston. That's two or three rounds higher than his CSB ranking suggested he'd go.
- 2020 G Erik Portillo went in the third round to Buffalo.
- F Eric Ciccolini went in the seventh round to the Rangers.
2020 F Austen Swankler did not get picked. Some York scouting:
FWIW, when you’re done crying over Caufield, here’s some info on Cam York. Flyers got themselves a really good player. I ain’t keeping receipts, but a lot of Flyers fans need to go rub one out & relax pic.twitter.com/O2Nb2UZqoO
— jsaquella (@jsaquella) June 22, 2019
Meanwhile Yet Another Junior Draft happened and you might be striking another name off Michigan's 2020 list. Andrei Bakanov went 38th in the CHL "import" draft. Sometimes these picks are swings in the dark but in this case it seems pretty ominous that Cedar Rapids, which signed him as a tender* last year, recently traded Bakanov to Des Moines for a single conditional draft pick.
Also in meh: distant future D commit Mats Lindgren signed with Kamloops. Connor Levis is one of four WHL first-rounders left unsigned.
*[Tender == you get to sign a guy who's a year younger than USHL draftees are. Generally reserved for high-end prospects since signing one costs you your top draft pick and you have to play the kid in 55% of your games.]
Etc.: Big year for college at the NHL draft. Nine first round picks and 71 overall. Iowa's really into falconry now you guys. Fold UConn football, which never should have existed in the first place.
This all makes sense, but I think you're underselling the argument made by the law talking guy. The NIL restrictions by the NCAA have precious little to do with the college football product they put out; those jerseys with 16 on them, a Michigan logo, and no name on the back and sold in the MDen would still be made by Nike. The Jiffy Lube Pinatta Bowl would still exist and be played in front of tens of people in a parking lot outside a Big Lots in Mobile. The only difference is that instead of the NCAA and member institutions getting 100% of the profits from those efforts, they'd have to settle for, I don't know, 75% of those profits.
To me, a better analogy would be if CA passed a law that would strip away the eligibility exhaustion rule, meaning guys could play for 5+ seasons as long as they were enrolled in the school. That would fundamentally change the game and would be a much stronger argument for the NCAA. But just saying you don't want to share money with other people in a sport you claim is all about amateurism and the purity of athletic competition feels hollow.
I actually agree about the hollowness! And yet the NCAA has made precisely this argument in court several times and done quite well with it. The NCAA has said over and over that amateurism is a key part of the good that is college football and that allowing players to be paid would destroy an important part of that good.
For whatever reason, several judges have found this argument compelling.
In 1998, the NCAA tried to use a similar justification to limit coaches' salaries. They claimed that allowing schools to pay coaches whatever they want would seriously damage college sports. The NCAA lost that argument in the 10th Circuit in a case called Law v NCAA. But I don't believe there has ever been been a similar ruling with regard to the limitation of player compensation.
Even in the O'Bannon case, which was a minor victory for the plaintiffs, the court only found that the NCAA must increase the value of the scholarship. It still accepted that strict controls on player compensation were necessary.
I agree with you that this justification seems weak, but it has worked in court.
This is correct.
The NCAA could absolutely kick out all the California schools if it wanted (all divisions) and let them start their own association or join another that allows players to be paid. The NCAA is a private org and has control over its members. Businesses pull out of states if they don’t like the laws (usually for tax reasons) which is why most corps are incorporated in DE. If DE changed it laws that materially affected corps, they would leave. There’s no antitrust violation kicking California schools out of the NCAA.
The real kicker though is how many kids would care about post season play if they were getting paid $100k/year at USC for their likeness? We’ve already seen it a bit in college basketball. I think the top talent would flock to the California schools to get paid above the table for years. That leaves college football (the remaining NCAA version) a worse product as a whole.
The question (which the NCAA has faced before) is does this kind of coordination make a better product or have some other pro competitive justification.
Right now one could make the argument that the likeness rules don’t matter because only like 5-10 schools are competing for a championship when the season starts anyways, they just aren’t getting paid to do so.
The NCAA would counter with “all the best players would just go to the schools where they would get the most money off their image.” That is most certainly true, but how different is that from what is happening now?
I would love to watch all this unfold in the courts.
good and clear explanation. I would argue that at the stake is whether the requirement of amateur status is allowed at all.
It is irrelevant if they win a lawsuit. All the best players in every sport would move to California and probably PAC 12 schools. That would make a two tier college athletic system the good one the California and probably PAC 12 schools and the second tier the rest of the country. How do you imagine that plays out? Who do you think gets all the money then? The NCAA has no choice but to capitulate.
Well, California couldn't make steroids legal because the federal government classified them as a Schedule III substance, which requires a prescription and has other limitations about possession and usage. Now, the federal government could decide not to enforce this against athletes in CA, but that seems unlikely.
By comparison, there isn't a federal law (AFAIK) against people being able to make money off their likeness.
So by all means keep sliding down this imaginary slippery slope you've concocted in your head, but you'll have to find another lane.
california sure could make steroids legal. just look at what a number of states have done with pot which remains a schedule I controlled substance under federal law. so nobody cares about pot, why would they care about steroids any more than dope?
When I was visiting Alcatraz while on vacation last week the Park Ranger giving us the "rules and regs" speech had a perfect one liner about pot:
"you are standing on federal property. the things that you can do and smoke across the bay are not the same as the things that you can do and smoke here!" priceless.
No, the federal government absolutely did have discretion to enforce that rule within the state (especially for the providers/dealers who were transporting it across state lines) but they didn't as often under Obama as they do/tried to do now under the current administration. It's still a federal crime (though I believe hemp/cannabis with under 0.3% THC is not decriminalized) to possess, distribute, etc.
As for the difference between steroids and pot, that's a rabbit hole I'm not going to go down. But if a state passed a law that allowed heroin to be sold over the counter, my guess is the federal government would care quite a bit more than pot because of the clear history of debilitating side-effects of using it. But who knows, maybe it'll be in our cereal in 10 years.
As for why any of this is relevant to the point that CA can pass a law that lets student-athletes make money of their likeness and the ONLY party that has a stake against it is the NCAA, that's beyond me. There is no federal law outlawing Shea Patterson from selling jerseys with his name on it, and only the NCAA's barely-enforced-in-most-situations by-laws are standing in his way of doing so.
That's not quite correct. California, (and now a majority of states) have eliminated state criminal penalties for specified amounts and uses of marijuana (medicinal uses or and in some states recreational uses as well). The decision to eliminate state criminal penalties is entirely within the authority of the states, but doesn't affect their status under federal law.
Marijuana therefore remains a Schedule I drug under federal law, but federal legislators have adopted a policy of non-enforcement in those states that have adopted state level regulations that permit the use of marijuana within the state (under the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment and related amendments).
So no, California cannot supersede federal law (see the Supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution). Rather the feds have chosen to follow California's lead in changing its own laws.
The supremacy clause, Article VI, only applies where the federal government has jurisdiction.
Could, sure. Would, nope. The hypotheticals at some point have to be weighed against what’s actually possible. I hope I don’t have to spend much time comparing overall perceptions of weed and steroids. Never, never, never would a legislature legalize steroids for athletic enhancement.
everybody missed the point, probably because of my overly cryptic reference. by calling MJ a sched I controlled substance i implicitly say, 'yes, it is still illegal under federal law'. so the logic is that states have now legalized on the state level something that is still clearly against fed law. analogy would be to legalize steroids or even bank robbery - if you allow states to decriminalize something on one level why not others. it was not meant to suggest we should legalize any of those things, its just that logically (not morally) there is no difference yet people are quite comfortable blowing off fed law.
Gotcha and I definitely wouldn’t want to pick a fight with one of the good guys on here. MY point wasn’t to question whether people would ignore federal law as much as to say that certain things won’t get past social mores so the hypothetical is VERY hypothetical. Anyway plus one for taking the time to respond and hope you have a great day fishing or doing something equally fun.
I don't think you're correctly stating the logic. Lets just take your problematic example I guess: If California legalized steroids, then everyone who wanted to use steroids would move to California and California would be known for having great weight lifters or whatever. When the rest of the country tried to enter competitions against them, the Californian Hulks would always win.
Its not that everyone has to legalize paying amateur athletes. Its that the California schools would draw the best amateur athletes in the country and pay them. The NCAA could ban those schools but it would disrupt their current business model and it would cost them the legal monopoly they currently have of being the premier college sports league.
Getting Wagner would be a great start to the Howard era and would address a number of the "how will this team score" questions that have floated around. He's not a given to take over, but he's about as clear a potential star as UM could expect to get now.
I hope the NCAA burns to the ground trying to defend their misguided views on athlete compensation, and if it comes because their attorneys give them bad advice even better. The fact that LSU effectively giving a guy $180k and nobody flinching should disabuse all but the most diehard head-in-the-sand types about the stupidity of the NCAA on this matter.
Thank you for the existence of states like California.
I’ve got to agree with you, otherwise I would be living in the Pacific Ocean.
Will be interesting to see what happens here in the next couple days with Franz. Summer semester starts on campus next Wed, so you'd think something official would come before then...I've got to imagine that both he and the program want him in for the Summer term.
Also, with each day that passes it seems more and more that his preference is to come...otherwise he'd just announce that he's staying in Germany. I'm guessing the holdup is admission-related. Not necessarily that he isn't qualified, but just that it's so late in the cycle to be admitted to the university.
that Wagner is a big possibility even after Beilein left, speaks well for the program. Has to be unprecedented. That a brother follows his brother to a program despitet losing their coach, and, so late in cycle. Wagner family truly must love Michigan and the experience, and what it did for Mo.
NCAA Football 2020 is coming!@!! oh wait... EA owns that...
If likeness become a reality, EA will gladly make that game again. It was a real cash cow for them and they were all for paying the likeness rights before as well but the NCAA wouldn't let them. EA sports seems to be somewhat exempt from the crap that EA forces all their other developers to do. Everything is mainly a massive online platform game with barely any single player story that they can microtransaction and loot box the players to death with. They even got caught with an algorithm that acknowledges when a player pays for something and starts making the game harder for them so they will pay again. Thankfully the sports games stay away from this for the most part with strong single player campaigns. They started bringing in the microtransactions before the NCAA games got cancelled, so we would surely see more of that. But I do believe all the NHL and Madden games are still very enjoyable if you never set foot in the online part.
Franz would beat Mo one on one
LaVar Ball would beat them both, 1 on 2.
Ok calm down there, Lonzo.
i have come a long way on the 'pay the players' scale. this is now my favorite quote:
Michigan Name And Image Money Cannon Committee. LFG.
I fully expect Franz to be in a UM uniform next season.
Celebrating the prospect of one state forcing its laws on other states is low even for you, Brian.
Uh that's not how it works
the law-talking guy you quoted, mark edelman, got his law degree from michigan.
with all the great news of this past recruiting weekend, any update on a key contributor for next year: dylan mccaffrey? anyone know if he is progressing well with his rehab from injury?
Wasn't he already full go during Spring?
I certainly hope Franz chooses to attend Michigan, but unless he's truly interested in a college education, why would he opt for the unpaid college game when he's making money right now and apparently doing pretty damn well at it?
The only things I can think of are experiencing America and/or living the college life. Getting the full experience like his brother. Getting more exposure. But I agree, it would be hard to turn down getting paid vs going to class.
Also if he signs a contract with Alba and then gets drafted next year the team would have to buy out his contract or wait for it to end before he could come to the NBA. If he's not a lottery pick they'd just wait, so this could be a faster path to the NBA. But yeah, mostly it appears to be a cultural experiential decision.
Not for me.... I wouldn't want to live out of hotel when I'm 18, on the road. You get your last remainder of your youth taken away, for material things ,and no peers the same age. Would suck, I think. Lonely. Better to be a kid first.
Franz shoots and moves just like Moe, would love to see more of that in a M uniform.
California passes a lot of interesting laws, but before everyone hyperventilates about this thing it should be pointed out that there is no law yet so what effect it might have is just speculation at this point. It seems to me that a starting point here would be that the California law could not be in conflict with Federal Anti-Trust law or the law itself would be challenged. Beyond that though what would the practical effect of such a law be? It’s kind of a weird situation to begin with since most individuals don’t need a law in order to profit from Name Image and Likeness and now California is proposing to pass a law – what – mandating that someone profits from Name Image and Likeness? How does that work exactly? How does one profit from Name Image and Likeness to begin with? As far as I’m aware nobody is currently profiting from the Name Image and Likeness of college athletes and any agreement to start would presumably be an agreement between private parties. How much power does the State of California have to mandate a transaction between private citizens? A player’s name is also on the back of a university’s jersey so it seems to me that any player who wanted to profit from Jersey sales would only be able to do so if the university was also a party to the agreement. What if a university would only agree to split Jersey sale profits up with the player getting 0.25 percent of sales, the university getting 49.75 percent and Nike, or whomever, getting 50 percent? Is the law going to specify what ‘fair compensation’ is for the player and does the State of California actually have the power to dictate to private parties what a fair contractual agreement actually is?
What if California passes a law where players ‘must’ profit from Name Image and Likeness and Nike chooses not to sell any jersey’s with player names on them? Is Nike breaking the law? What if a citizen of the state of Ohio decides they want to buy a USC jersey with some player’s name on it on the internet? Does the player still get compensated or can the sale even be authorized? If California passes the law and nobody sells anything with any player’s name on it then California schools could end up being banned from postseason play with no player’s gaining any advantage out of the situation.
my interpretation of the california bill is that it undermines the very principle of an amateur league. NIL is a ticket for everyone to get paid for their athletic ability. If the law stays, the only reasonable move for NCAA is to disband. Revenue sports can become a professional league with standard 4 year contract and NBA and NFL will have to pay buyout for early entries. Scholarships for none revenue sports will also be greatly reduced.
Dear Universe,
Please stop savagely kicking Michigan fans in the face and genitals during National Championship games. Softball, basketball (x2) and now baseball come to mind.
Best Regards,
NorCalMfan
Best post so far. The rest reads like lawyers arguing in a room and it makes my face hurt
Makes your face hurt. You know a little bit about that, don’t you doc? ;-)
So you mean college baseball DOESN'T need to dramatically change how the sport is scheduled which matches how every kid in america plays HS baseball and so that it culminates in a tournament during the dead time of the year on TV for Michigan to be successful? Michigan just needed to hire and retain a good coach? I'LL BE DAMNED.
Next you'll be telling me NCAA baseball doesn't need to get rid of aluminum bats and throw away the one source of revenue it has.
Re: LSU (And most of the SEC)
Why aren't the parents ever charged with tax crimes by the IRS? Are we to believe that Alexander's father and countless others are claiming this on their federal taxes? $180K tax free is more like $250k to us dummies that actually pay taxes.
Some extended Franz Wagner highlights from the 18-19 season. (Thanks to Youtube user Alba Tross)
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