illinois

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]

Sponsor note. Become an Alumni Association Member (or upgrade your membership) and you'll have a chance to win courtside(!) seats to the Indiana game on February 16th. See Tom Crean's pants up close and in person! I know he's no longer the coach but his pants are a grad assistant!

Sign up by the 9th to qualify; drawing is on the 10th. Enter the promo code LETSGOBLUE when you sign up.

The Wade family story. Andrew Khan gets the family background on Brandon Wade's departure from Duquesne and enrollment at Michigan:

In September 2018, before his freshman season at Duquense even started, his legs were hurting. It was more serious than shin splints and necessitated multiple MRIs. With treatment and pain tolerance, he gutted through the season, but his shooting numbers suffered. He finally shut it down for a couple of months in the spring.

But the Wades insist that even if Brandon had performed better on the court or gotten more playing time, he would have left Duquesne.

"We had some conversations last year that no parent wants to have," Keith says. "It had zero -- zero -- to do with basketball, which hurts a parent, especially me, more than anything else. Our family is such a basketball-based family."

Keith had coached his sons -- Ryan is a year younger and now a freshman at Holy Cross -- throughout their youth, both at Skyline and AAU.

Being part of the coaching fraternity, Keith says, "There was no way in hell I'm allowing him to transfer over some minutes."

It's been a rough few years for the Wades; hopefully that's in the past.

Is there a Don Brown problem? Michigan's defense has gotten blasted the last two years by OSU, leading noted Michigan twitter person Manuel Excel to wonder if Don Brown's defenses get worse as the opposition gets better. The effect, if there is any, is small, and the slope of Brown's line is up entirely because Michigan got nuked the last two years:

He describes this as an OSU problem, not a Don Brown problem. I'm a little more willing to put blame on Brown since OSU had Michigan downloaded the last two years—raise your hand if you're long-yardage conversion on a short throw—and Michigan had little to no response. That might be a program issue rather than a defense issue, but the offense was busy putting up as many yards as OSU gives up in a game in the first half. The defense couldn't fit OSU's most basic run play.

[After THE JUMP: Congratulations, Michigan fans: Illinois is good]

Dantonio: "That was a long football game. I can't remember a lot of things. A lot going on."

— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) October 26, 2019

It's probably over. It's Michigan State week, and in 2019 that means surveying a program down the road that is finally reaping what it's sown. Years of operating in a virtually lawless environment caught up with MSU after their breakthrough recruiting class saw four players leave school for two different sexual assault incidents. That class is, or should be, this year's seniors. Their outcomes, in order of ranking: sexual assault, sexual assault, sexual assault, NFL, on roster, transfer, transfer, sexual assault, transfer, transfer, transfer, transfer, on roster, transfer, transfer, on roster, PEDs, on roster, on roster, kicker.

[After the JUMP: Jim Henson doesn't deserve this]