Outbreak: minimal. Michigan's coronavirus pause after a handful of positive antigen tests appears like it'll be a brief one:

Was told only one of the handful of presumptive positive tests returned positive (UM football) after PCR testing. Michigan paused Monday as Harbaugh said: "out of an abundance of caution" Awaiting word on when/if team resumes team activities.

— angelique (@chengelis) December 1, 2020

That's an odd number of false positives, but I guess we're going to go ahead.

[After THE JUMP: coaching options are limited]

The list: yikes. Bruce Feldman has a list of the top 20 coaching candidates to keep an eye on during this edition of the carousel. The list is not a ranking of best hires—it includes a bunch of obscure candidates who might sign up for the Vandy whipping post—but since it goes 20 deep it probably contains 90% of the hypothetically viable candidates for the Michigan job. #1 is Urban Meyer; Feldman does not mention the words Zach Smith. #3 is Hugh Freeze; Feldman does not mention the words sanctimonious holy roller who called escorts on his work phone.

It is not a good list, from the perspective of Michigan being in the market for a coach. In addition to non-starters at #1 and #3, Alabama offensive coordinator du jour is #4. That's the college equivalent of hiring a Patriots coordinator.

Guys on the list who might be of interest:

• #2 Matt Campbell, HC, Iowa State. Obvious.
• #5 Luke Fickell, HC, Cincinnati. Feldman thinks Fickell wouldn't take the Michigan job because he's too Ohio State.
• #8 Jeff Hafley, HC, Boston College. This seems nuts to me. Hafley is 6-4 in his first season at Boston College and prior to that was DC at OSU for one year. He spent the previous decade in the NFL. There's something to be said for guys who rise quickly, but the resume here is incredibly thin.
• #9 Brent Venables, DC, Clemson. Venables is probably not available, because if he was available he would not still be at Clemson. Also has two kids on the team currently.
• #16 Lance Leipold, HC, Buffalo. MAC coach du jour. Leipold had a 109-6 run—not a typo—at D-III Wisconsin-Whitewater with six national titles. He took over a program that had lost in the title game the previous two years but had not been a power before that. He had a rough start at Buffalo but has gone 10-4, 8-5, and 4-0 the last three years. That's pretty good at a tough place to win.

Various other coordinators or young-up-and-comers are listed mostly because of existing ties to programs like South Carolina with definite vacancies. FWIW, there are many Wisconsin fans in the comments who thank Feldman for not mentioning UW DC Jim Leonhard.

To me, that is one viable candidate (Campbell) and one guy who's pretty interesting (Leipold) if Feldman is correct and Fickell wouldn't take the Michigan job.

BONUS: James Franklin is on this list! Feldman: "Anyone who questions [Franklin's] coaching acumen is kidding themselves." !!! Texas might hire him?!?!??!

Basketball testing protocol. The Big Ten is doing its level best to get the basketball in:

The conference has decided to have all of its programs, as well as the officials, utilize Quidel’s daily COVID-19 antigen test. … “It’ll give us the best chance of eliminating the contact-tracing piece from competition,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood told me.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 are both testing every day, but most of the other high-major leagues are testing three times per week, using PCR tests. Many of the low- and mid-major conferences have been testing weekly, and are now — with the season starting this week — required to test three times per week.

“It’s a shitshow and it’s only going to get worse,” one low-major head coach said. “Now we can’t manipulate the contact-tracing anymore like we’ve been doing. In the past, we could go practice non-contact the day before everyone was tested. Now, with it being three times a week, you can’t do that.”

One positive test result often leads to a full 14-day quarantine for the entire team, which doesn’t make a ton of sense.

But that hasn’t been the case in the Big Ten. The player who tests positive has to go into a 21-day quarantine, but the remainder of the team is able to test out of quarantine as long as they are negative each day. …

According to multiple sources, the Big Ten is also on the verge of hiring approximately 15 referees in an exclusive deal in which they would solely work Big Ten games once league play begins.

It would be dumb to make any assertions about the success or failure of this exercise. The plan at least seems reasonable.

I feel you, anonymous basketball persons. The Athletic has an anonymous survey of Big Ten basketballists. Items that stand out:

• Xavier Tillman gets two votes as the league's hardest player to score on despite the fact he is not in the league any more. I enthusiastically endorse this take.
• Giorgi Benshanishvili gets a vote in this category? What?
• Two players vote for Brad Davison in the "I'd love to play with" category, presumably because Davison doesn't cup-check teammates. Joey Brunk gets two votes?
• Juwan Howard and Tom Izzo finish tied a top the "coach I'd like to play for" list with six votes. Chris Holtmann gets four, and one desperate lunatic pulls the lever for Chris Collins.
• Players are split about down the middle about using their extra year of eligibility.

I am trying to imagine the Big Ten basketballist who is not on Northwestern's basketball team who thinks "man I really wish I was on Northwestern's basketball team." It does not compute.

Outside the umbrella. Cheerleaders are not under the NCAA umbrella largely because some schools tried to count cheer teams as athletes and this seemed like a Title IX dodge. And cheerleaders are like "cool, rad, cool":

Woolsey, who has a verified Instagram account with 255,000 followers, has posted sponsored content for the apparel company Reebok, the study-aid website Course Hero and the cosmetics company Vanity Planet. She can earn more than $5,000 per post through deals with larger companies, and sometimes receives $200 to promote smaller boutiques.

“A lot of companies like stories of me sitting and talking about the product and making it seem like it’s not an ad,” Woolsey said.

Sherburn said that along with free apparel, the entire Texas Tech cheer team gets discounts from local salons for services like tanning and manicures. “We have to post about it and say, ‘Thank you for taking care of me,’ in return,” she said.

Woolsey and Sherburn said they did not consult their Texas Tech coaches about posting sponsored content because they saw no need to ask for permission. [ed: !!!]

At no point has anyone in media launched a fusty jeremiad about the entitlement and corruption of today's cheerleaders. There's no Cheer Dabo who turned into a pile of sawdust as soon as a college kid got paid for being famous. Everything in cheerleading is completely fine. This is what the NCAA will be like in a Name And Image world. It will be completely fine and 46% less indefensible.

The worst. Michigan's bumblebee alternates top a list of the worst alternate uniforms in Detroit sports. Truly incredible Brandon/Adidas vibes:

According to Van Bergen, the Wolverines learned minutes before kickoff that they’d be wearing these monstrosities. They were visually unappealing, but as Van Bergen tells it, the white pants also ran tighter than the team’s usual cut.

“We’re going out to play football and I’m in stuff that doesn’t fit me,” Van Bergen said. “I’m completely uncomfortable and I’m also rushed.”

It used to be marginally worse.

Even more NHL draft stuff. The Athletic's Scott Wheeler has an updated and expanded list of 2021 NHL draft prospects. Owen Power checks in at #1 in a year where he's increasingly a safer bet than CHL players who haven't hit the ice yet:

1. Owen Power — LHD, University of Michigan, 6-foot-5

To play it safe at the draft is to talk yourself into taking less talented players. But in a draft where so much is uncertain, Power is the surest thing. I’m not sure he’ll stay at No. 1 on my board but he’s the only player in this draft class I’m sure will remain in my top five when the year’s over. Given the uncertainty around so many of the top prospects in this draft (there are top-tier talents who haven’t played this year, others who are playing in new leagues and some who just aren’t playing well), Power gets the edge as a prospect who is the most likely to play at the top of an NHL lineup.

There’s nothing about his game stylistically, nor his physical or mental maturity, that is off-putting (even accounting for the fact that he’s a late 2002 in a 2003 class). He’s got excellent four-way mobility considering the size of his frame, he defends the rush and the cycle superbly through deft gap control and calculated decision-making, his head is always up when he has the puck and he fairly consistently makes NHL skill plays by stepping around opposing players with the puck or threading passes.

Kent Johnson is #3, Matt Beniers #8, Luke Hughes #9, and Matthew Samoskevich is #27. These are all more or less in the same range we've seen Michigan draft prospects listed. Dylan Duke, though, hasn't gotten the same level of hype. Here he slots in just ahead of Samoskevich:

26. Dylan Duke — C/W, NTDP, 5-foot-10

Duke’s one of the players in this draft class who still isn’t getting the kind of love he deserves, at least not in the public sphere. He was at the centre of the NTDP’s offence last year, he grew an inch in the summer and he has remained a focal point to start this season. Duke is an opportunistic player, the kind of forward who excels playing in and out of space, hopping on loose pucks and making a quick aggressive play to a teammate or the net. …

His reads are quick, he doesn’t cave under pressure, he’s agile (without being explosive), his processing doesn’t seem to suffer when the pace ratchets up. He’s also got a lethal wrister, which isn’t reflected in his low goal totals this season.

F Tyler Haskins makes Wheeler's list of honorable mentions, which would make him a third or fourth round pick.

Etc.: Michigan's FOIA department remains an embarrassment. Try to remember you're a public university. SOCKERSLAM! Man this Jets reporter is a mess. Here's a thing I haven't said in a while: here's an interesting sports blog. It's about Northwestern! Rescued by the DMV. Sounds familiar.