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Miami coach Jim Larranaga retires mid season. Cites NIL

Curt Flood was in the major leagues for 12 years and was essentially the property of his team, the Cardinals, until they released him or traded him. This was due to baseball's "reserve clause" a contractual restriction that first appeared in some National League contracts in 1879 (16 years after slavery was abolished).
In 1968, the professional ballplayer had no negotiating power whatsoever. His salary was at the discretion of his employer. The only limit on the employer was that the player's new salary could not be lower than his previous salary. All the players could do to negotiate was to sit out and not get paid. The Cardinals traded Flood to Philadelphia and Flood refused to report. He sued baseball and lost.

Kain Colter sought to have college football players classified as employees in order to unionize.

Flood's case is a lot easier to rally behind - because the injustice is obvious.

Big Ten TV Schedule: Week Nine (12/30-1/5)

All times CENTRAL. All games available nationally unless otherwise indicated. I will add announcers as they are assigned. This week features the end of non-conference play (with one exception) and the start of the bulk of the Big Ten conference season.

First, the NU games:

Northwestern @ Penn State
Thursday, January 2
6:00 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP:
Color:

Northwestern @ Purdue
Sunday, January 5
1:00 PM, BTN
PxP:
Color:

And the rest:

Monday, December 30

Western Michigan @ Michigan State
2:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Jason Ross Jr.
Color: Stephen Bardo

Columbia @ Rutgers
4:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Ed Cohen
Color: Austin Johnson

New Hampshire @ Iowa
6:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Jeff Levering
Color: Jess Settles

Southern @ Nebraska
8:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Kevin Kugler
Color: Nick Bahe

Thursday, January 2 – Happy New Year!

Purdue @ Minnesota
7:00 PM, FS1
PxP:
Color:

Rutgers @ Indiana
7:30 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP:
Color:

Maryland @ Washington
8:30 PM, BTN
PxP:
Color:

Illinois @ Oregon
9:00 PM, FS1
PxP:
Color:

Friday, January 3

Iowa @ Wisconsin
6:00 PM, FS1
PxP:
Color:

Michigan State @ Ohio State
7:00 PM, FOX
PxP:
Color:

Saturday, January 4

UCLA @ Nebraska
1:00 PM, FOX
PxP:
Color:

Michigan @ USC
7:00 PM, FOX
PxP:
Color:

Sunday, January 5

Indiana vs. Penn State @ Philadelphia, PA
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP:
Color:

Illinois @ Washington
3:00 PM, BTN
PxP:
Color:

Maryland @ Oregon
3:00 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP:
Color:
I was traveling last week, but was able to access the schedule consistently. My wife and I just got back from Katy Texas tonight, where we had a great time with my daughter's family. One of the highlights was watching my grandson Mitchell's Seven Lakes sophomore basketball team win a 6 team holiday tournament, running their record to 12 - 0. One of the victims was Strake Jesuit, which I believe has provided NU with a couple of football players. Strake went down to Seven Lakes 65 - 40. Anyway, now we're back, the Lazy Boy is in action as we speak, but I need to pick up some beer for the mini-fridge tomorrow. Thanks for all you do!

Brendan Sullivan CHOKE JOB at the Music City Bowl

Choke job is harsh. He had a decent stat line for an Iowa QB. Some of the ire on these boards is at those who bag on Lausch and say Sullivan would have been sooo much better. I don’t think we win any more games with Sullivan. Especially if Lujan’s OT call against Duke was the same. And if Lujan would’ve called the same gameplan for Sullivan. I am convinced in some games like Iowa that Lujan told Lausch not to run. Sullivan is a running QB period. He would not have added to our passing game. And probably would’ve gotten hurt again.

Brendan Sullivan CHOKE JOB at the Music City Bowl

Pound for pound Kain was probably the toughest football player to wear a Northwestern uniform in the last twenty five years and he has paid dearly for putting his body on the line while wearing a Northwestern uniform. He deserves our respect, gratitude and compassion and instead you felt compelled to pile on him while he is down. Says a whole lot about you.
He certainly did put his body on the line, but I don't know whether or not Kain's behavioral issues are related to his play on the field (post hoc ergo propter hoc). As others have pointed out, mental issues do often manifest in young men in their 20s regardless of whether or not they played football. Since it is a possibility, though, I'll refrain from belittling him for the troubles he has sadly faced.

Starters Minutes

I looked at this last year, and over the past 11 seasons, there is literally 0 correlation between a P5 team's bench minutes and whether they make the NCAA tourney or not. 167 teams have made the tourney with fewer than 28.2% bench minutes (where we currently stand).

Just last year, 3 of the 4 #1 seeds and 10 of the top 16 seeds in the tourney played their starters more than we play ours right now. In 2023, 2022 and 2019, 8 of the top 16 seeds played their starters less than we play ours. Prior to 2019, it wasn't as common, but there's a definite trend now, and we are not at all an outlier.

In 2015, John Calipari went to the Final Four using 40% of his minutes on bench players, but it helps when your bench consists of future NBA draft picks Devin Booker, Tyler Ulis, and Dakari Johnson. Meanwhile, that same year, Wisconsin beat that Kentucky team in the Final Four to make it to the championship game using just 21.2% of minutes on their bench, which made sense, because they had NBA draft picks Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker in their lineup and their bench was Duje Dukan, Zak Showalter and Traveon Jackson.

Brendan Sullivan CHOKE JOB at the Music City Bowl

Don’t make me laugh. He got his degree, represented NU to the best of his abilities on and off the field and made the choice, which was his to make, to go somewhere else where he had a better chance to play. These guys love playing football and for many of them this is their last chance to play the game they love. None of us are entitled to criticize them for making a move based on a desire to get more playing time.

Furthermore, I recently read your disgusting post regarding Kain Colter. Pound for pound Kain was probably the toughest football player to wear a Northwestern uniform in the last twenty five years and he has paid dearly for putting his body on the line while wearing a Northwestern uniform. He deserves our respect, gratitude and compassion and instead you felt compelled to pile on him while he is down. Says a whole lot about you.
You’re out of your mind. Colter is the genius who effectively started the avalanche that resulted in the NIL chaos that has ruined college football.

Free throws

You are spot on with this analysis and lay out the way to solve a free throw shooting problem.
Anyone remember Paul Schultz, who played on one of my favorite teams, 1983, that beat John Paxson's Notre Dame in NET at the Horizon?He was our 6th man, a power forward, and had a very hard time with free throws, he shifted late-season to something of that nature, that appeared a bit unbalanced, and went on a free throw tear the rest of the season and actually became a fan favorite at the line for a time.

Brendan Sullivan CHOKE JOB at the Music City Bowl

No kidding. How can anyone have a problem with that?
If anything, Sullivan's decision to leave was vindicated by what Lujan, Wright and Lausch did this past season.

The kid clearly had no love lost for his former teammates, why do some random fans on a bespoke message board have to be nice?

Brendan Sullivan CHOKE JOB at the Music City Bowl

He got his degree, represented NU to the best of his abilities on and off the field and made the choice, which was his to make, to go somewhere else where he had a better chance to play.

No kidding. How can anyone have a problem with that?
If anything, Sullivan's decision to leave was vindicated by what Lujan, Wright and Lausch did this past season.

Grimy

I was really impressed with Brooks during that press conference. He really is a future coach. His answers are so much more thoughtful than the typical player clichés.

Reporters often ask pretty dumb questions and players give mostly meaningless answers, but Brooks actually answered some of those with interesting insights. One example was when a reporter asked him basically about scoring points in transition off turnovers. Most players would give an empty answer about how it gets them going and gives them energy and other meaningless platitudes. But Brooks made the interesting point that it limits the number of times we have to go into their half-court sets which means our opponent sees less of our plays so we can use them later in the game. It may seem like an obvious point, but I've never really thought about it like that before and I've certainly never heard a player answer a question like that. He really is a basketball savant.
After that game I thought Brooks is the most likely Collins alum to replace him someday as head coach. Credit to Collins that his two most accomplished PGs, McIntosh and Buie, could vie for that honor.
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