(03-28-2018 11:03 AM)Shox Wrote:  The biggest negative to going the baseball model is all the drama it creates. Back when we were a national power in baseball, we had student athletes who would get drafted after there junior year (and some sophomore eligible as it based on birth date) who would then had until the first day of class to try and negotiate a contract. Basically the school becomes the pawn as once the athlete attends one class, he can't sign. So we had news stations on campus watching for these athletes to show up. I miss those days...[/i]

The rule now sets a deadline date by which a pro team must sign a player it drafted -- I think they've moved that deadline all the way up to July 15 -- so it's the same deadline for every player and not based on their college's first day of fall classes.

Under the old rule, there used to be a lot of stories like that... baseball coaches taking their best players to class on the first day of school to make sure they sat down in class without signing a pro contract.