StrangeSox

I agree that grass lawns are probably one of the stupidest things we do as a society.

Small two-stroke engines are particularly bad polluters (no real emissions controls or requirements). They're also loud and smelly. Plus it sucks when you go to cut the grass and realize you need to run to the gas station first.

I need a new mower this year and I've been tempted by the cordless ones. Glad to hear some first-hand feedback confirming what I worried about.

That is really disappointing.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 10:26 AM) Ah. Well that's still not any different from scholastic scholarships right? Aren't those applied on an annual basis, probably to ensure that you're still in school/making the grades? No idea but some sort of academic 4-year contract would represent a substantial shift from the current landscape. Honestly I think that's a deal college athletes take 100% of the time, and those that would leave early anyway can just pay whatever breach of contract damages there are.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 10:24 AM) Don't see a reply to this, but this happened for the NFL, Maurice Clarett tried to get into the draft after 3 years at OSU once he was tossed out of school, the case made it to the Supreme Court but the Court sided with the NFL. Clarett was challenging the three year rule of the NFL. He wasn't three years out of high school by that point. edit: I mean, players declare after three years for the NFL or one year for the NBA all the time. Imagine that Derrick Rose had signed one of these 4-year contracts. Then, after one season at Memphis so that he meets the NBA's one-year-out-of-HS rule, he drops out and enters the draft. What are the consequences for him? Maybe a few thousand in damages? What would those damages even be? He wouldn't be fulfilling his end of the contract (playing basketball and attending school) and the school would be let out of their obligations (providing tuition, room and board). The school would be left having to argue the economic value their student-athletes bring to the university but also continue arguing why they aren't employees.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 10:09 AM) Football players are. I'm not sure about all of the other sports. I'm pretty sure men's basketball players are guaranteed 4 years. The NCAA didn't even allow multi-year scholarships to be offered until a year or two ago.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 10:09 AM) The job opportunities of all 18 year olds are restricted, other than the super geniuses who finish college by that age. They're not arbitrarily restricted solely by age, though. Microsoft might require as BS-CS for an entry level position, but they don't require you to be 1 or 3 years out of high school like the NBA and NFL do. Those requirements aren't about any specific sort of experience, education, training or performance. I doubt that if Microsoft had a similar requirement, it'd stand up legally under age discrimination.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 10:08 AM) Right, but look at it from the perspective of the university defending themselves in court. I don't see how it'd undercut any of the arguments that the NW players made. NW is known for their rigorous standards anyway. And now they've got to deal with litigation any time one of their players leaves before four years? What if they can finish a degree in three years? What if it would take them five or six? Besides, one of the things that players are pushing for are guaranteed scholarships--this could be a huge benefit to the players rather than anything all that positive for the schools. Could a player decide to just stop playing sports? What if they're injured? What if they want to transfer?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 10:02 AM) Nothing from the school's perspective, and I agree with you that enforcement would be an issue, but let's say there's a monetary penalty that they have to pay back a portion of their scholarship or school bills. Again, from the universities point of view, that's a breach of their agreement and the expectations they have for their "student-athlete." Having to repay even $100,000 worth of tuition when you just signed a 7- or 8-figure contract isn't exactly much of a disincentive.

Ok, so what happens when someone breaks their contract and is drafted into the NBA (NFL) after only 1 (3) years of college?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 09:08 AM) I don't see why the NBA couldn't just change the amount of post-high school years you need to 4. Right now the players union has no leader and is completely rudderless. The NBA could basically do whatever they want for the next CBA unless something changes. They could, but again, why? How would this benefit the NBA? To me, that would just reinforce that it's much more like an employment contract than being about a student who happens to participate in amateur athletics.

Exactly. It'd be like having to repay your employer for tuition benefits if you leave soon after finishing your degree. At least in engineering, you can generally negotiate with your new employer to pay that as a signing bonus. Now compare that to someone signing a seven plus figure contract in the nba-pretty easy to pay liquidated damages for breach of contract. Plus that would seem to explicitly make them more like employees.

inning/score update? I think gameday is still way behind nevermind, seems ok now, Viceido looking at strikes down the middle in the top of the 8th

gameday's frozen on Alexie getting a seven pitch walk to lead off the sixth, what the hell is actually going on?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Mar 26, 2014 -> 09:55 AM) Anybody have a project manager certification? Looking into this and was wondering where the best starting point might be in terms of books... Are you talking PMP through PMI?

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 04:04 PM) Why? I was surprised at how many people wanted to take a busted (but repairable) hot tub. I wasn't expecting that sort of response. Someone came and picked it up yesterday afternoon, about 24 hours after I posted it. I had 40 or so other emails from people saying they were interested.

way to pick him up Gillaspie!

One of the things the NW players are fighting for are guaranteed scholarships.

I don't see how they could possibly enforce that without some sort of collusion with the NBA, which I have to imagine the NBAPA would fight.

They're also having huge issues with the World Cup IIRC

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 01:38 PM) Honestly, it doesn't matter. I was originally responding to jenks' saying that these kids rightly realize that they're better off going to college than trying to go pro right away. For the ones who could actually go straight to the NBA from HS (only a few a year), I doubt spending 9 months nominally enrolled at a college really does anything beneficial. For these select few, they'd be better off if they could go to the pros right out of HS. I wonder what the numbers are for kids who go college baseball versus straight to the minor leagues? Isn't the argument a little bit different when you're talking about degree/cert requirements versus a strict age limit? It's not like the NBA requires a college degree, it's simply a time-based thing. Either way, I wasn't arguing whether or not they can or should, just that it isn't necessarily in the individual athletes' best interests that they do. On the other hand, you could make the argument that NBA GM's are horrible at their job and the NBA needs this rule to prevent them from doing dumb things.

QUOTE (Jake @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 01:41 PM) There are highly positive intrinsic benefits from going to college that you could argue for. Of course, we could also argue that elite college athletes aren't allowed to experience those intrinsic benefits. Right, I don't think your typical one-and-done who would have been drafted straight out of HS anyway is getting much out of their year playing in college.

I'm talking about from the perspective of the player. What good would it have done Kobe to go to Random U and generate a bunch of profits for them and their conference versus going straight to the NBA if some team (really, every team) was willing to pay him millions of dollars right out of HS?

Ok? He still went to the NBA and started making millions of dollars a year earlier. He still became one of if not the best players of his time, won multiple championships and made hundreds of millions of dollars. I don't see where playing at UCLA or Florida or wherever would have made a difference.