According the Sports Business Journal, the Big Ten is discussing a carve out to the current revenue sharing cap to allow schools that exceed it to retain players. From SBJ, the proposal mirrors the NBA “Bird rights” the salary cap exception in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that allows teams to re-sign their own free agents even if they are over the salary cap. Presumably the reasoning is the same as in the NBA: let schools maintain roster continuity without penalties for exceeding
the cap.
Because we are starting to enter the fun season of transfer portal madness for the Winter sports, I thought deeply about this (5.5 seconds) on the following prompt: “Who should the Gophers declare Bird Rights on for each of the main revenue sports?” This means practically football, basketball, and hockey.
Sorry to all the other sports. It’s not that you’re not amazing. I just don’t have a clue how much money you’re going to get. Folks sound off in the comments here if you have strong opinions on Men’s golf.
Football
My pick here, which will shock absolutely no one who has listened to me talk about the current state of the football program is KFB. Brown is the most impactful player on the defensive side on the ball and the Gophers let the right safety walk in the off-season.
Now if we’re thinking moving forward, since KFB is certainly going pro next year, I think Emmanuel Karmo stands to be the leader of the defense next year, can play any position in the Linebacking core, and is #OneOfUs.
Look it’s obviously Drake Lindsey because the quarterback is always going to be the most valuable player on the football team, but that’s not fun. Is it depressing that I did not think of a single offensive player after Drake? Yes, yes it is. Change your best Minnesota coaching staff.
Women’s Basketball
Start with the team that is in the Sweet 16, and the most obvious pick of all of these teams. Tori McKinney is the engine that will make the women’s basketball team go next year. She is the best defender on the team, and put up a stat line of 13/3/3 with a steal and a block per game. McKinney will be a junior next year and I see no reason why she wouldn’t be a four year college player.
The only other realistic option here is going to be one of the incoming recruits who has a great season.
Men’s Basketball
Grayson Grove. No explanation necessary.
Ed. Note: Real talk, it’s Isaac Asuma or a transfer guy who has not yet arrived (I don’t have any inside information about who this will be) who will have two years to play.
Women’s Hockey
No idea. The team loses a ton of talent. gopherguy05 tells me Bella Fanale would be the pick, which 1. great name and 2. from her surprisingly detailed Wikipedia page “has no pre game rituals, and her favorite postgame meal is protein shakes.“
Men’s Hockey
Also no idea! They were generally hot garbage this year! Brodie Ziemer is the Brod(ie|y) who is expected to be back next year and he put up 36 points. Not bad Brodie!
