NBA exits. Romeo Langford enters the draft, like everyone expected, says he's had an injured thumb since November. I will revoke my Hackenberg declaration if that's the reason he shot 27% from three.

In less inevitable news, Tyler Cook is bailing from Iowa come hell or high water:

Source tells me Iowa forward Tyler Cook will once again declare for the NBA draft but this time he plans to leave the program.

— Scott Dochterman (@ScottDochterman) April 4, 2019

Iowa being Iowa this will impact them in no way. They actually redshirted Jack Nunge, a 6'11" stretch four type, after he had a solid freshman year (16 MPG, 108 ORTG on 19% usage). Fran's Large Adult Son, Pat McCaffery, is a 6'8" kid who's a top 100 recruit as well. There will never be a Fran Iowa team that's not overrun with giant goobers who can't defend but are inexplicably baller on offense.

Minnesota's Amir Coffey has also put his name in but is retaining the option to come back. I haven't seen him on any draft boards so a dollar says he returns for his senior season.

[After THE JUMP: grad transfers, a hockey thing, Seth's taking all my links about football]

They are coming for grad transfers. File under "not mad, impressed" but also mad:

In two weeks, the N.C.A.A.’s primary legislative body, the Division I Council, will vote on a measure that could severely restrict graduate transfers. The proposed rule change would require that colleges accepting graduate transfers be docked a scholarship the next year if the transfer does not earn his secondary degree within a year. …

Justin Sell, the athletic director at South Dakota State who led the Division I transfer working group that developed the proposal, said that too often graduate transfers in men’s basketball and football had little interest in obtaining graduate degrees.

“We really want to protect against the football player who is done and leaves in December and the basketball player who is done and leaves in March,” Sell said. “A lot of students are looking to use it to play another year. Who’s seriously there for the master’s?” …

The rule itself seems to have come straight from the mouth of Kentucky Coach John Calipari, who suggested to ESPN in 2016 — long before the committee began its work — that “if the kid gets his grad degree in one year, fine; if he doesn’t, you’ve got to use the scholarship for two years.”

So you lose the scholarship if your guy doesn't get a masters, which takes two years, in one year. And the guy who came up with the idea is John Freakin' Calipari, the guy who has more one-and-done players than anyone in college basketball. And he had Stanford transfer Reid Travis on his team this year.

Hopefully this gets shot down. If it doesn't the new trend will be the Derrick Green: graduate in three years and have two to play at the new destination.

The zeitgeist is coming for them. Good summary of the rising tide of bills the NCAA is going to have to deal with:

When Republican Washington state representative Drew Stokesbary spoke with SB Nation, it was the second day of the men’s NCAA tournament’s opening round. For the first time he could remember at that point in March Madness, Stokesbary had yet to watch any games. A Duke grad, he was once the Blue Devil mascot.

Over Christmas break, Stokesbary began crafting Washington House Bill 1084. Introduced in January, the bill would force Washington universities to allow athletes to collect endorsement money or hire agents. It would seek to prevent the NCAA from sanctioning programs that allow athletes to collect such pay.

A month later in California, Skinner introduced her bill two days before football’s Signing Day. She consulted with Stokesbary while crafting what she named the Fair Pay to Play Act.

In Colorado, Republican state senator Owen Hill is aiming to move a similar bill through the legislature. Per a source, it has bipartisan support in both the state senate and house.

U.S. Congressman Mark Walker, a North Carolina Republican, introduced a bill in March that would amend the tax code to remove an exemption from any amateur sports organization that “substantially restricts a student-athlete from using, or being reasonably compensated for the third party use of, the name, image, or likeness of such student-athlete.”

In addition, fringe presidential candidate Andrew Yang has "pay the players" in his platform. Yang is mostly notable for being the meme king.

Exit this guy, followed by others. One of many pending answers for the hockey team:

Jacob Semik has announced his commitment to Arizona State University. Semik is in his third season with Dubuque. Read the full release here: https://t.co/RgzeTlfGJl pic.twitter.com/HHaVBl1DHs

— x - Dubuque Fighting Saints (@fightingsaints) April 4, 2019

I had been operating on the assumption Semik was coming in because he'd signed a letter of intent, unlike many of his compatriots in the will-he-or-won't-he-enroll section of Michigan's recruiting. Michigan even seemed to have room since they're losing three defensemen (Hughes, Boka, Cecconi) and were only clearly bringing in Cam York and '98 Keaton Pehrson.

There are two other D nominally in this class, both of whom committed to Mel (Semik committed to Red). Steve Holtz has been injured most of the year and I assumed he was deferring. Jake Harrison did follow Mel from Tech. I'd imagine he's in now.

Etc.: Mark Emmert is making noises indicating name and image rights for athletes may be restored. Quinn Hughes off to a fast start. People doing corruption are bad at it. Bob Bradley is 100% correct about Big Soccer.