BU meet notes clearly state that no HS's should compete at the upcoming meet

HaneousNope wrote:

Cain is neither unattached or an open athlete. She Is competing for NIKE. She is also not paying an entry fee I would bet.

But she is competing in a professional event. She is not as a high school aged athlete competing directly against NCAA athletes, and that is what the NCAA rule is about.

"High School kid sues BU for the right to pay $20 to enter an event".

It could go all the way to The Supreme Court.

No Way wrote:

What are you talking about? It's a track meet, they can allow or not allow anyone to run.

That is absurd. What if they said only Caucasians could compete.

Another Litigious Parent wrote:

If I was a well-to-do parent, with a high performing HS child, and I was denied participation in the meet while Cain was allowed participation...then I would definitely sue the meet for inequality.

"Inequality" isn't a cause of action. Private entities are not required to treat you fairly or even follow their own rules. (With rare exceptions.) If I were BU's lawyer, and you sued, I'd probably seek sanctions for filing a frivolous lawsuit. (Obviously it depends on what your attorney manages to come up with.)

There's no need to tie yourself up in knots about whether the rule, by its terms, actually applies to Cain. The fact is, regardless of what the rule says, the people enforcing it have decided that Cain gets to run. That's the end of the story. The fact that administrators have the freedom to disregard their rules is a good thing, and one of the reasons that they don't need to hire a staff of lawyers to write rules that anticipate every situation. If a rule, by its terms, is going to work well 99% of the time, you don't need to bother with the rare exceptions in drafting it. Laws are different. Much of the work of drafting legislation is worrying about the unusual applications of a law or its unintended consequences.

webfoot wrote:

No Way wrote:

What are you talking about? It's a track meet, they can allow or not allow anyone to run.

That is absurd. What if they said only Caucasians could compete.

It's not absurd; it's the truth. Discrimination in public accommodations is prohibited only if the discrimination is on the basis of race, religion, national origin, disability, and in some cases, sexual preference/orientation. These rules are the rare exception to the general rule that entities not regulated as common carriers are free to serve whomever they wish.

They could deny you an entry to the race, even if you meet all posted criteria, just because you're stupid. They could deny you entry because you're ugly. They could deny you entry because you publicly criticized them, because you beat their star athlete a few weeks ago, or for no reason at all.

Wouldn't want her to waste her entry fee.

^This.

Well stated, sir.

OP...I'll just assume you never exceed 55mph, jaywalk, litter in any fashion, etc. I mean with your unyielding, black/white view of things, you could not do any of these things. Right?

Kiss my ____ wrote:

Everyone overseeds the fvck out of themselves at these meets

A legit 8:50 3k guy who seeds himself at 8:50 won't get in

A 9:12 3k guy who seeds himself at 8:43 will get in

It's BS

Boycott the BU meets

I have a question for everyone advocating for lawsuits against BU - why can't the 8:50 guy sue over not being let into the meet? It seems like he was treated even worse than the highschooler who wasn't allowed to enter

I'm That Guy... wrote:

*High school athletes, including those in high school who wish to compete as open or unattached athletes, are not permitted to compete in the meets. Open or unattached athletes who are not in high school are permitted to compete in the meet."

Read the rule again. It says nothing about age. HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES are not permitted to compete in the meets. Mary Cain is not a high school athlete; she is a professional. Doesn't matter how old she is, she is allowed to compete.

High school athletes who wish to compete as open or unattached athletes are kids on the high school team who want to compete without that affiliation, or kids who are not on the team but have amateur eligibility. Mary Cain is neither. She is a high school aged kid, competing for Nike.

The other thing you need to keep in the back of your mind is that BU can invited anyone it wants to compete. There are races there that would be considered "invitational" races in the college meet. If the H.S.'era did not get an invite they

can go run at Reggie where they are having tow huge H.S. meets on Saturday and Sunday.