LUNCH LINKS GETS EXTRA ELIGIBILITY

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Lunch Links. Today we have some good news, and we also have some really truly awful stuff.

Let’s start with the good:

The NCAA announced yesterday that schools can no longer dictate where transferring student-athletes can and cannot transfer to.

The Division I Council adopted a proposal this week that creates a new “notification-of-transfer” model. This new system allows a student to inform his or her current school of a desire to transfer, then requires that school to enter the student’s name into a national transfer database within two business days. Once the student-athlete’s name is in the database, other coaches are free to contact that individual.

There are still weird conference-specific transferring rules to navigate, but overall this is a step in the right direction here methinks.

More notably, perhaps, is the fact the NCAA is now allowing football players to participate in up to four games without burning a redshirt.

This change promotes not only fairness for college athletes, but also their health and well-being. Redshirt football student-athletes are more likely to remain engaged with the team, and starters will be less likely to feel pressure to play through injuries. Coaches will appreciate the additional flexibility and ability to give younger players an opportunity to participate in limited competition.

Exciting news here! While I don’t think this rule will retroactively give Drew Ott additional eligibility (or even have helped him in the first place) I’m still all aboard in giving these kids as much leeway in their eligibility status as possible. It’s also worth noting Nate Stanley could have still redshirted in 2016 under this rule.

And now for some shitty news.

Jordan McNair, an offensive lineman for Maryland, died of heart failure last night. He was 19.

McNair collapsed during a team workout on May 29 and has been in the hospital ever since. He received a liver transplant but remained in critical condition.

The Testudo Times has good coverage of this tragedy. I encourage you to stop by and console our conference brethren.

Scott Dochterman has a great piece on the day Iowa fans tore down the goalposts in the Metrodome.

Awesome profile on James Daniels from the Athletic. If you haven’t subscribed to that by now you should.

Joe Wieskamp is treating basketball like a full-time job.

On how Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre are attempting to revamp sports talk television.

Iowa basketball target Jalen Suggs is on the circuit.

How Dez Bryant got stuck with a $50,000 restaurant tab.

What does a healthy George Kittle mean for the 49ers?

Here’s the best obituary I read on Anthony Bourdain.

Here’s the 1999 piece Bourdain wrote for the New Yorker that put him on the map.

Another great Bourdain piece.

And another.

Go forth, and go Hawks.