Max Aaron has a job in Finance. His head is already out of competition. I think that's great, but it's not the only way, and, seriously, it is the opposite of wishy-washy to decline GP definitively, and letting other skaters get the initial assignments, rather than taking the assignments, and then giving them back, causing everyone else to adjust.
When the Nationals deadlines come about, then they'll have another decision to make. Until then, they don't owe anyone anything.
It's getting ancient that the only way to prop Aaron up is to put down other skaters' choices. He never struck me as being the kind of person who would appreciate that.
For people who understand the qualifying and envelopes:
1. I thought they were talking about limiting the Nationals fields to X, and the total spots for non-seeds was X-#of seeds. But there were 22 Ladies and 21 Men in 2018: did they drop that proposal? Or does that start this coming or in a later season? I'm trying to learn whether it makes any difference to the number of placements for non-seeds if Rippon, Wagner, and Nagasu decide late to compete at Nationals. (The Shibs have already said they're taking the year off.)
2. If they skip GP, but then do Nationals, do they get their envelope money? Do they have to compete internationally to get envelope money, as long as they are training and have expenses to defray? My understanding is that there is a pile of money that's distributed among all of the people who qualify: if that's true, does it mean that, for example, what the Shibs would have gotten goes back in the pile to be spread around?
