YOU SHOULD VOTE! All the cool kids are doing it!

If I was a meme/photoshop wizard like Josh, I could envision an Uncle Sam type of picture here, but with Truman’s face superimposed on it. But it’s late, it’s been a long day (it’s late Thursday/early Friday as I type this), and I don’t have that kind of energy or skill. So, you’ll just have to use your imaginations...

If any of y’all can come up with this vision for me, I’ll happily put insert it here and shout out your awesomeness.

Anyway, the SEC, after discussion with student-athletes, coaches, and campus administrators, released a non-partisan voter education & participation program on Thursday with all its member schools agreeing to support voter engagement among their athletes, coaches and staff for the upcoming November election, as well as other local, state and federal elections. One of the recommendations, as already mentioned within the past few months, is to not hold practice on Election Day so that athletes/coaches/everyone can go to the polls.

From Commissioner Sankey:

“Voting is an important way to fulfill one’s civic duty in America. The SEC Voter Education and Participation Program focuses on creating an opportunity for our universities to help our student-athletes, coaches and staff understand and participate in the election process.”

Mizzou Athletics also released its own voter action plan, as described by Dave Matter of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It’s quite detailed, and definitely worth a read, so please check it out. The 8 tenants of the SEC’s plan are also laid out in his story.

From Cuonzo Martin, who was VERY much involved in Mizzou’s plan (to no one’s surprise):

“It’s vital that we do everything we can to not only ensure our student-athletes, coaches and staff register and participate in the election process, but are educated, informed voters on November 3rd. This program provides those opportunities and gives us the needed resources and time to perform an important civic duty.”

Some other highlights:

• Mizzou plans to work with the Boone County Clerk to designate Mizzou Arena or Hearnes a central polling place where any registered voter can cast their voice for the November general election.
• Three athlete organizations — the Black Student-Athlete Association, Female Athlete Minorities at Mizzou, and Student-Athletes Fostering Equality — will conduct peer-to-peer education on voting history and the importance of voting to share with their teammates in a number of meetings to be held in the next few months leading up to Election Day.
• Poli Sci professor, Dr. Laron William, will provide a tutorial on the election process and the electoral college and show how to evaluate and select candidates, while athletes in leadership groups and/or Poli Sci majors will research candidates and issues and host educational forums prior to the election.
• Mizzou Made Academics and Student-Athlete Development staffers will send out texts & emails to touch base with athletes and provide them with instructions on how to check their registration status and how to register to vote online. (I swear I’ve checked my own status at least one a month)

Y’all, this is so, so cool that they are doing this. For as much as the University in general has made me shake my head in bewilderment with some of their decisions these past few months, THIS is great.

This is a time when you really should give into peer pressure and exercise your right to vote. It’s really, really, really, really, really (infinity x really) important.

On to the links! It was a pretty light Mizzou news day on Thursday, I must say.

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Josh said good luck finding another O-Line like that wonderful and weird line of 2013.
• A NEW Dive Cuts episode is out. The recruiting board is pretty much cleared, but there’s always plenty of hoops for our fair hosts, Matthew J Harris & Sam Snelling, to discuss.
• Coming up: The 20 for 20 continues! And a new roundtable! And I will have a first hand account of my experience at the march coming up early Saturday.

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More Links:

Football/SEC/CFB Landscape

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Dave wrote about how the Tigers are expecting their cornerbacks to be even better than last year.
• PowerMizzou (free): Gabe & Mitchell were back with new hot taeks in their Blowing Smoke Presented by Weston Tobacco series. It is not Mizzou-related, but is CFB-related. Mitchell also covered the March for Mizzou.
• #26?!? Love to see it, Nick Bolton!

• USA Today: Dan Wolken wrote about how there’s really no “hot seat” for college football coaches this season, which is a definite first. Erick Smith wrote about the PAC-12’s partnership with a company putting together rapid tests in hopes of getting a season started sooner than originally anticipated.
• How’s it going in the B1G, you ask? Well, not well, as reported by Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports. You mean to tell me, just because people are demanding that college football immediately return, that it still might not happen? WEIRD.

• From SI’s Ross Dellenger... Also, don’t look too closely or you’ll see a lot of mask-less people, and not a lot of social distancing in areas. Also, you have to admire Ross’ time breakdown here.

Other Mizzou Sports

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: If you don’t mind a little absurdity and vitriol sprinkled into your day in the the form of some chat questions and truly unhinged comments, check out Dave’s new weekly chat and his piece on the March for Mizzou walk Wednesday evening. The chat did have some great questions, and the article was good, but you’ve been warned.
• Here’s a name for the Mizzou Hoops recruiting board to monitor. Note: every time I read his name I do a double take think it says Tilmon, ha.

Mizzou in the Pros

• High praise from Terrell Davis on our fave Denver guy, Drew Lock.

• This made me actually LOL. Good response, Jordan. And clever tweet by Hochman..

• Not much to see/say about Michael Porter Jr’s performance (or the Nuggets in general) in their Game 1 loss to the Clippers. It was... not great. Mike played 23 minutes and had an off night shooting (2-9 overall, 0-6 from three). He did, however, have 6 rebounds and his +/- was not abysmal (+/- —6) when compared to that of his teammates.

Interesting/Non-Mizzou News

These are some of the best stories & tidbits I found regarding some goings-on in sports and the world— Enjoy!

• Pardon my confusion, but the solution is, as cases are rising dramatically, to make testing MORE complicated to get? Xavier Negozio of the Columbia Missourian detailed the university’s newest plan for testing. [insert disgruntled sigh here]
• Steve Nash was named the new head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, and in this piece by Marc J Spears of The Undefeated, he will continue to use his voice for social justice, police reform, and to fight racism because “it’s important to support this fight.” Well said.
• Dorothy Gentry of the NYT wrote a great story about the friendship between St. Louis native and the Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal, and the Washington Mystics’ Natasha Cloud, who are using their friendship to tag team social activism.
• The Utah Jazz’s Donavan Mitchell may have left the bubble, but he’s not leaving his social justice crusade on the court in Orlando, according to Marc J Spears of The Undefeated.
• ESPN wrote about the death of minor league baseball as we know it. It’s really awful what MLB has done here.
• Remember when Mizzou lightly recruited Jeff City’s OG Anunoby? Sigh... Well, here he is, making the game-winning shot vs the Celtics. Happy for him!

• Congrats to Rock M favorite, Ja Morant, on his near unanimous win on NBA Rookie of the Year. He received 49 first place votes, and I would like to know who the ONE holdout was who put Zion at 1... Also, Murray State is just the best, aren’t they?

• One last thing... first off, I’m sorry to hear that The Rock and his family all had COVID, but this tweet made me laugh... a lot.

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