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I see that picture, Linton Brown, and raise you this picture. Olean, NY. January, 2021. Enjoy!

Stu has good taste in music so I have no issue at all. If I did not agree with his music preferences I would be very angry and unable to sleep at night.

I used to be a big Stu critic, but I think he has gotten better and has done a better job with SLU on social media. My only nitpick is his lack of coverage of recruiting. I also think the P-D coverage complaint has been a bit overplayed. In year's where we're relevant we got a lot of coverage, often times preferred placement over Mizzou bball. We got plenty of coverage in the RM years and the last few years with Ford. Also, the last couple of years, it seems the P-D has given a lot more coverage in the offseason.

Also, does it seem he might be taking that a little more serious than his Billiken coverage?

for you stu haters, if you think about it, the st louis post dispatch aka place for mi$$ouri journalism majors to get a job because no one else will hire them, is not not a billiken lover news outlet. we are lucky we even have a beat writer. I think Stu does fine and i fear the alternative more than dislike stu.

what is wrong with it? he apparently really likes music. good for stu.

I guess I don’t mind it in May. And I’m a big supporter of people being allowed to tweet about their interests outside of their job, but I don’t get the impression that anybody is really interacting with his “songs of the day”. It’s fine, I guess. But it does seem strange that he just seemed to start doing it about a month ago. Like he saw somebody else doing it and thought it might be a good idea to adopt.

Yes. Much of the $$ will be for personal appearances. As to the question of whether players would be able use SLU logos, names, etc., it's an interesting topic. In some situations, top-tier players may compete with SLU for sponsorship dollars. In others, there may be joint team/player/sponsor opportunities. In yet other situations, sponsors may use player appearances as a cheap way to buy an implied relationship with SLU/team or defeat another sponsor's exclusivity. Each might have different solutions as to use of marks. There may be some top-tier players who capture the entire market's passion who advertisers want for more than just appearances. They might compete with the school for sponsorship $$. Now if the sponsor also buys a team sponsorship (or if already a team sponsor,) would SLU prohibit the use of their trademarks and all of the resulting co-marketing opportunities simply because the player is also getting paid? I wouldn't. Now if the sponsor is major, didn't buy a SLU sponsorship (bought the player only) -- and wants more than player appearances -- if you're SLU, you're probably prohibiting use of marks. But there are downsides: no SLU awareness via promotional co-marketing activities, and it reduces the opportunity to use this player-only sponsorship to ultimately bring the sponsor into a SLU sponsorship down the road. It also runs the possibility of angering your player if the deal goes south (because you didn't allow use of marks,) literally costing the player big money. Maybe the player walks at end of school year. There are two other situations. 1) Some schools offer exclusive sponsorships within business categories. For example, "official beer sponsor", "official wireless carrier", etc. (I have no idea if SLU has such.) Sometimes sponsors locked out of exclusive deals use player sponsorships to "break" the exclusivity, especially when there isn't a labor union governing this kind of thing, definitely the situation here. Imagine for a second, if Verizon tried to sponsor a player to undermine TMobile. (again, have no idea whether TMobile's SLU sponsorship is exclusive.) In that situation of using a player-only sponsorship to defeat another sponsor's SLU exclusivity, it would be a definite no-no on use of marks. But what about a player sponsorship in which there is no exclusivity involved, but it does compete with an existing sponsor. An example might be selling players to an automotive dealership group that competes with Bommarito Automotive. (again, I have no idea if that is an exclusive deal.) But what would Bommarito say if 4 or 5 players signed a deal to make personal appearances at a competitive dealership at half the cost of a SLU sponsorship? SLU gets nothing. Players might undermine an existing sponsorship. My opinion: no marks. And I don't really like the thought of it. 2) Small, mom & pop sponsors for personal appearances. A pizza parlor, for example. It's kind of a tough call. They're not likely ever going to be a SLU sponsor -- too small. So probably no loss of revenue that would have come to SLU. And it helps in building local goodwill. But in allowing use of marks, SLU might lose control of how its marks are used and which brands they're associated with. The player would control. Not good. Trying to police this for all their players? A nightmare. On other hand, SLU doesn't want to anger its players. Tough call. Maybe no SLU marks. But simple "SLU player" in ad copy/text is OK. A mess. Perhaps a solution would be a joint Athletic Dept/Players sponsorship sales strategy with rules governing. It would offer a stronger array of options, opportunities for both $$ (short and longer term) and co-marketing. But there may also be legal/anti-trust limitations for SLU, too. While SLU certainly owns and controls its marks, in the interest of protecting its sponsors and sponsorship pricing, can SLU actually limit the sponsors its players sell and the prices they charge? I'm not sure. The players don't have a labor union to negotiate these kind of things. Sorry if I've gotten too far into the weeds on this! But it's a complicated subject, actually way more so than I've highlighted. There will have to be much discussion, processes, rules, approvals, etc put in place. And lawyers. Getting a headache just thinking about it! (no offense to the many great lawyers on this board!)

There's the market for one-and-doners and then there's everybody else. The top 300 guys that make up the overwhelmingly majority of our recruiting classes ain't gonna get squat.

No one is really going to say that it is a good move for their business to pay some college athlete $10,000 for a personal appearance. Let's not kid ourselves, this will all be payoffs to kids that now is legal. If a guy who owns a car dealership in St. Louis is a Mizzou guy, he'll pay his endorsement checks to Mizzou kids. If a law firm on the East Side has a bunch of partners that are Illinois fans, they will pay their money to an Illini player. I certainly don't expect our kids to have some advantage in this area for endorsement dollars. These will all be prearranged payoffs to kids from boosters of their school.

I agree - this is the “slow news day” season on bills.com. We’ve hit critical mass. My song of the day:

i agree he is far too weak on recruiting. my guess is that he knows he either has to really just parrot what he reads online i.e. he doesnt know. or else he has to work a lot harder and likely at his own expense. so rather than do either, he just only reports whatever the billiken program will share with him. we all know the best info is from the player's themselves and from the player's coaches and networks. again, that's a lot of time and travel etc that the post likely isnt going to cover. so he stays out of it. I dont know this, but just envision it. we got pistol to give us the "other side". so we are getting the news. thank the Lord for pistol

The phrase “These are deals you just can’t PASS up” will definitely be used. Most likely while Yuri “passes” some rolled up carpet to Becki.

Meh, I do have a problem with the coverage. but this take about stu and music is one I’ll sit out

Stu sucks but this is low on the list of issues with him

All good stuff. Thanks guys. Biggest news: the ability to book Nick's prediction!

Jordan will do what is best for Jordan, and I support whatever decision he makes. He has been talking with the NBA scouts and with Coach Ford and will make the decision that is best for him. Here are some other pieces of information I am sure he is already aware of. There are 60 players drafted by NBA teams each season. All first rounders get guaranteed contracts, and now most second rounders now get some money, perhaps just for one year. Europe pays well. To date, 23 players have been called up from the G League to the NBA. Some are on 10 day contracts, some are on two way deals. So you are not buried if you are sent to the G League. The average age of an NBA rookie is around 20 years old. Assuming Jordan was 18 when he entered SLU (or shortly thereafter turned 18), he would be nearing 22 now and nearing 23 a year from now. That is old by NBA standards. The average NBA career is 4.5 years.

Frank said on his show today that SLU has offered Aaron Cook and are expecting him to decide soon.