Wow how can BYU's team be legit?

If you ever met a kid who went on a mission you would not be screaming the Mormons have an advantage. Its tough hard work and they do not get to train.

Veterans get extra time as well. Don't be the baby in the room crying that someone is older therefore better.

Just to be fair - does anyone recall if the media and message boards were referring to Galen Rupp as a 6th-year senior last year?

Seems like there's a lot of bias here against Mormons. 2 years without training is actually a real challenge for these athletes to overcome.

ok how about this? run as a freshmen. take two years off completely for mission. redshirt first year back and train ass off. What you have then is a 22-23 year old sophomore. I would say that is an advantage even with two years off over a 19 year old. Then when you have a 25-26 year old senior, who has been training for years now over a 22 year old - what you have there can be considered an advantage.

Since I served in a foreign country with amenities inferior to America, issues always arose with diet and health. And I was in a relatively stable country. I can't imagine serving a mission in Africa where you spend half your time throwing up and having shivering fits from Malaria. I'm not making this up, I have never felt so unhealthy, overworked, overstressed, and simply tired on my mission(especially towards the end). I am not the exception. We used to compare before and after pictures of missionaries and laugh at the complexion on our faces after 2 years. Once again, I served overseas, so that's just my experience.

There are no special privelages. You have to be with your partner at all times. You have to wake up at 6:30(sometimes you can wake up early, but like I said, you are always tired, and if you choose to wake up early, your partner has to wake up early as well. Imagine telling some average Joe that you expect him to wake up at 5am everyday so you can selfishly run your 10 miles. Not a great way to get along. And you are with them 24/7 so getting along is absolutely essential).

You have a set of rules, and you choose to keep them or not. No one is 100% perfect. Yes, you could simply mail it in, break the mission rules by running on your own, structure your missionary schedule around 10 milers,and make the 2 years of missionary service pseudo training, but that's not why people go on missions. People don't serve missions to run and train.

If you do your mission right you simply don't worry about things like this. Nearly all your thoughts and efforts are directed towards helping others. I'd get calls from people all day like "I want to divorce my husband" or "I lost my job and can't pay the heating...I have 3 little kids..." or "my husband just drank too much and got in a car crash and almost died.." You name it. And you are expected to help and give support through all of this with your 20 year old experience. So as you can imagine, you tend to be busy and your priorities lie elsewhere.

Priorities aside, the system doesn't even allow for training.

Training as a 22 year old BYU Sophomore that hasn't run in 2 years as opposed to a 20 year old Stanford Junior that hasn't missed a day running for the past 6 years is NOT an advantage. You'd be surprised how past your prime you feel.

If there are other questions, feel free to ask.

same for everyone wrote:

The rules are the same for everyone. Mormons are the only ones to take advantage of it. Christians, catholics, etc... can go on missions and stop their eligibility clock too.

Huh you just contradicted yourself.

Uh yeah, if everyone was a Morman then they'd get away with the same stuff that the Mormans get away with.

The rules are not the same for everyone.

There is a rule that applies to everyone, except Mormans.

Any age limitation should apply to everyone, PERIOD, or else there should be no age limitation.

I'd like to hear your answer to this hypothetical question:

Josh Rohatinksy won NCAA cross in 2005 in his mid-twenties (25 or 26, I don't remember exactly which). Let's say that this same person had been born two years later, grew up in the exact same environment, went to BYU straight out of high school without doing a mission, and ran the 2005 NCAA cross meet at age 23. The training, cumulative miles run (except any Rohatinksy did while on his mission), and all other environmental factors for the real Rohatinksy and this hypothetical Rohatinsky are exactly the same, excepting the mission.

Are you saying that this hypothetical, younger Rohatinsky who did not do a mission would have beaten, or at least run the same as the real Rohatinksy did in 2005?

If you don't answer yes, then I don't see how you can defend the position that being older confers a significant advantage.

Yup, Galen Rupp is just as bad. He wouldn't have been nearly as dominant if he was a normal 21 or 22 year old senior now would he. Sounds like he certainly gained an advantage with those 2 extra years. And I gurantee you those BYU runners are not just over there helping out poor kids and not running. Sure, maybe they are not getting in 120 mile weeks, but 10 a day for them sure wouldnt be too tough now would it? College sports should be for 17-23 year olds, not some 27 year old dickwad who has trained for several years before heading to college. The BYU team is as big a joke as Galen Rupp's amature collegian status last year. Both are f***ing cheaters, and its sad BYU uses their religoun as a scapegoat.

IWentOnAMission wrote:

If there are other questions, feel free to ask.

What the point of being so close to your partner at all times? Safety thing? How much are you sick of him/her by the end of that mission?

Ask Ben Olsen the UCLA QB how that mission helped him ha !

How does Rupp fit into your rant over age in the NCAA? He graduated high school in 2004 and finished his last season of at Oregon in 2009. Five years, right? He turned 23 a month before winning his last NCAA titles. How is he any older than anyone else who took a redshirt year?

Jumpa4598 wrote:

Yup, Galen Rupp is just as bad. He wouldn't have been nearly as dominant if he was a normal 21 or 22 year old senior now would he. Sounds like he certainly gained an advantage with those 2 extra years. And I gurantee you those BYU runners are not just over there helping out poor kids and not running. Sure, maybe they are not getting in 120 mile weeks, but 10 a day for them sure wouldnt be too tough now would it? College sports should be for 17-23 year olds, not some 27 year old dickwad who has trained for several years before heading to college. The BYU team is as big a joke as Galen Rupp's amature collegian status last year. Both are f***ing cheaters, and its sad BYU uses their religoun as a scapegoat.

Because Jumpasshole is just a whiny bitch. Stop the estrogen and grow a pair. God, it's attitudes like his that keeps Americans (except for a precious few) getting their asses handed to them by Africans.

Who really cares about how old runners really are? Only Americans!! If you want to be the best it really shouldn't matter. Instead of trying to water down the competition, you should be encouraging all and sundry to come along and make the competition the best. Then maybe 26.30 and 12.45 would be targets for a number of the more talented, not just the drugees. Remember, because the USATF is such a joke, the only way to become a good runner is to go to college, just like College is the development structure for pro football, etc. - so it is for Running, unless you are an absolute HS stud like Webb who can get a contract right out of HS.

LOLOLOLOL!!!!! I love it when people cry about BYU's unfair age advantage. It just shows that they're having success.

The people that claim that BYU athletes are really training for two years are completely ignorant and need to shut their cake holes. They've obviously never met a Mormon missionary. If a missionary wants to get up before 6:30 and train, that's fine. As long as he can convince his companion to go with him because there are NO exceptions to that rule. You break it, you get sent home.

And, if you think that 2 years off from training is any advantage, why don't you convince your college coaches to institute a program where athletes leave the school for two years, don't do any training during that time, and then come back? Fact is, missions are horrible for athletes. Everybody knows it, and that's why every university outside of Utah either discourages or prohibits Mormons from taking their missions.

Mormons are an easy target because they're different. You guys criticizing are a bunch of bigots.

People did question if Weinke should be given the heisman becase of his age. And I am sure if your 35 year old sprinter was winning the NCAA div I championships, people would be complaining.

i do it for the lolz wrote:

no, no one would be crying foul. did anyone piss and moan when chris weinke was a QB? did anyone piss and moan when i was in school and we had a 35 y/o woman as a sprinter on our women's team 7 years ago?

anyone take a look at the ncaa rules for age anyway? I'm pretty sure you can't compete if your older than 25 no matter what you do...

Ok, I have to throw in my 2 cents. I went on a mission, ran 2 times. 10 minutes each. Didn't do crap for me. I came home, ran 13 min with my little sister and almost threw up. Since then I've been injured on and off for 3 years and I have the same 1500m PR that I had as a freshman BEFORE my mission. For those that actually know anything about training, you know that sporadic training periods do nothing but restore an athlete to their previous state and it's the cumulative, successive seasons that truly create improvement in an athlete. I've known plenty of missionaries who were D1 athletes who have struggled to return to the sport at a decent level when they returned and that's just the physical aspect of it. Throw in the the complete shift in life priorities, the complete headache for coaches to structure their recruiting for 7 year cycles and holding scholarships for 2 years longer than anybody else, etc. and you have extremely difficult circumstances to overcome.

Disclaimer: I don't run for BYU nor support them, but in this case I have to back them up because it affect my school as well.

seriously. you guys are such babies

Oh, okay free willy, so you would be fine with your team not being able to make nats because your team is comprised of 18-22 year olds and you get beat by the team of 25 year olds. "Its okay guys, sure BYU made nationals and we didn't because they have trained more since they are 25 and 26 years old, but hey, at least they are helping to make American distance running better" Bullshit. How is BYU making the USATF better? They clearly are not going to be running the 12:45 5K's if they are still in college running at age 26. I mean, I guess it just pisses me off that I have to beat 26 year olds who took time off to train when I am only 18. If they are that good then they should be running professionally, not in college. Sure I am fast, but not good enough to beat a guy who has trained for 8 more years than myself and is still college. It is like telling a first year junior high seventh grade XC runner "Well Billy, even though its your first year and you are 12 you are a pussy and just need to try harder to beat all-state 18 year old Johnny".

I have always admired the service element of going on a mission. I think everyone should take 2 yrs off from college and perform service work of some sort. I wish I had.

Those that go on mission do not have a physical advantage, but they definitely have a mental maturity advantage. A large part of distance success is based on routine. commitment, and a completely healthy lifestyle. That is advantage a post-mission student has gained. Should they be denied a competition opportunity because they are more mentally mature? Definitely not.

fewa wrote:

anyone take a look at the ncaa rules for age anyway? I'm pretty sure you can't compete if your older than 25 no matter what you do...

Yup, no matter what you do. That's why the NCAA rule book doesn't include any exceptions for religious service, veterans, representing your country in an international competition, or extreme medical situations. Go ahead, look in the rule book- you won't find a single thing in there about those exceptions.

In fact, no one at the NCAA has realized BYU was breaking a rule. Aren't you a good boy for reading the rule book so thoroughly and discovering there are no exceptions!