nhl draft

Harbaugh gonna Harbaugh. I'd be more surprised if this story ended up involving anyone else:

To the surprise of Ofc Cooper, the good Samaritan was @CoachJim4UM who wanted to help clear the road. Ofc Cooper then gave Coach a pair of work gloves and the two of them went to work. (2/3)

— Ann Arbor Police (@A2Police) February 23, 2023

I went to Home Depot once and the first person I saw was Harbaugh, wandering around looking for something like he was just a person, a normal person.

Your new punching bag. The NCAA has a new president. Here he is not saying "absolutely not" to a thing:

Asked if SEC football players should be paid—a question that his predecessors would have answered with a resounding “No”—Baker took a different tack. He paused, then said it was something he planned to address with his member schools and conferences. Pressed on what those conversations might entail, he remained vague.

“I guess what I would say is that I’m planning to have a conversation with the membership about change,” he said, adding that he preferred to have those talks before saying more. “We’ll see what that kind of change can look like. But I certainly believe there will be change.”

This may be more about the writing on the wall than any genuine change of heart from Generic Suit in Charge Of NCAA. But at least that's something? Baker also says you "don't have to treat everyone the same… and probably shouldn't," which is sensible enough.

[After THE JUMP: we are willing to compromise on toe length.]

As the Harbaugh turns. UPDATE

We are in full support of Coach Harbaugh’s statement of support of President Ono’s comments supporting Coach Harbaugh and the Michigan Football Team and look forward to continuing to support Coach Harbaugh who is in full support of President Ono’s support of Coach Harbaugh and https://t.co/jOHBu6h1vc

— Shapiro Undergraduate Library (@UMichUGLI) January 13, 2023

More seriously, John U Bacon asserted yesterday that the chances he stays are "growing by the hour" after Santa Ono got directly involved. I do not buy for one second that Pete Thamel report that Michigan might not be able to get Harbaugh signed for "weeks" because of the NCAA whatever. It's 2023 and the president of the university appears to have an idea of how the world works.

Yes, please. There's been some rumbling about changes to Signing Day coming up. I find myself in a somewhat unusual position of feverishly agreeing with the SEC commissioner:

"We're crushing coaches in December," Sankey told The Athletic. "We're going to add playoff games (in December). We have to change early signing."

Sankey elaborated on the issue during a gathering with reporters on Sunday in Los Angeles, noting that with coaches voicing their concerns about the overload of activity in December, conferences "have a responsibility to take another look at it."

"From a remedy standpoint, I don't think you can go back to just the first Wednesday in February," Sankey said.

December Signing Day is dumb from a media standpoint—February was a much bigger deal—and it is now very dumb because nobody has any idea who's going to be on their roster. I get concerns that committed players keep getting recruited when they have no interest in being recruited, so let's resurrect an idea this site has promoted previously:

• Players can sign a non-binding LOI basically whenever, but let's say starting a year before a restored February signing day.
• Players in the LOI database cannot take official visits to other schools.
• Coaches from other schools cannot contact players in the database.
• The LOIs become binding on the first week in February.

This does a lot to cut down on useless attempts to get guys to flip, benefiting both players who don't want to be hassled and coaches who might like to see their kids faces, without locking either school or player in until most of the portal madness has settled.

It's back. Mmmm, Cheap Seats except tackling UFC 1. Which has Jim Brown doing color! Simultaneous thoughts: "why?" and "how did you get friggin' Jim Brown?"

The Sklars would appreciate a like on the video; this first episode is free to the world, future ones will be on UFC Fight Pass. Sign up, or deprive yourselves. I don't make the rules.

A large survey. ESPN surveyed "over 200 coaches, players, and administrators" about where college football is going. Upshots:

• A healthy majority (60%) of respondents think football should no longer be under the NCAA umbrella at all.
• A whopping 80% characterized NIL as a "black-market pay-for-play system that is being used to secure recruits and transfers," which means Michigan is in a small minority of naïve teams. Also it's a gray market—not explicitly prohibited but of murky validity.
• 75% say tampering is a problem that needs to be addressed, which is essentially impossible right now.
• A third of respondents favor a 12 team playoff model; another third favor eight teams, with other formats taking the remaining third.
• Only 15% endorsed lifting the one-time transfer restriction, about which more in the next bullet.
• Also relevant to next bullet: 88% of respondents believe direct player compensation is on the horizon, with a majority expecting it within five years.