Not really answering your question but just adding that I don't think any state-funded university (i.e., taxpayer funded) should grant scholarships to foreign athletes to run xc. I get that the schools want to win NCAAs, but doing that with Kenyans and Australians on the taxpayers dime feels wrong to me.
I did 6 and honestly it was nice to have no "what-ifs" but I definitely felt like I'd overstayed my welcome, and the body and/or mind probably isn't meant for that much time in the NCAA. Depends on the individual and the program! It's nice on one hand because I feel like more student-athletes are pursuing graduate degrees because of this, that's at least from my own experience and observations.
The schools aren't doing these guys any favors by letting them stick around for so long. When they don't start earning a living for an extra five years, they lose out big. Assume the average byu graduate earns $30,000 per year, they lose out on $150,000, which would compound to over a million by retirement. They are flushing a million dollars in order to race teenagers. The guys in charge are losing out on $100,000 in tithes for each person on all the teams. Everybody is a loser.
There's no way they train normally during their missions. They all have slow companions that they have to be with 24/7, and they only officially get 30 minutes of exercise per day. Maybe there's some rule bending on the 30 minutes and maybe on the one day per week they can do more they really push it and have companions that are willing to spend a decent potion of the one day per week that isn't just missionary work at the track while for the other guy to run, but even these most favorable circumstances don't seem great for doing much real training on the mission. Do you guys really think them being 2 years older is that much of an advantage with that's what those 2 years are like? 24 being the ineligible age would mean that most don't get a senior outdoor track season.
This post was edited 54 seconds after it was posted.
So you know nothing about Mormons or Utah HS? Got it.
Setting aside missions or Mormons, asserting Utah HS kids graduate older than anywhere else is really bizarre.
According to the University of Utah, 26 is the average age of bachelor’s degree recipients; the youngest undergraduate is 19, the oldest is 64. Nothing in there or in my post about mormons or kids from anywhere else.
re "aren't doing any favors" to mid-20s guys, if they worked or served in the military then went back to college (a) they tried your idea then (b) decided they would do better going back to school. they already "lived real life." they don't deserve the lecture. they wanted a better job or at least higher salary doing so. you're then wanting to take away their athletic eligibility just to display how grumpy a conservative granpa you can be.
you put these posts together with the pro-china "even having sports is stupid" stuff first page and you get a pretty clear picture what's going on here, that some old drone who justifies what he's done for decades as wise wants to force the rest of us either in the work force or into a STEM class with no sports.
sorry but these folks are about to embark on about 30-40 years of work work work. is there a real reason you're in such a hurry for it to be no sports or 22 or 24 and not 26? life is tough? is that really a credo to run the joyous parts of life by? "i know you like playing college sports but due to my being an unhappy jerk your eligibility needs to be severely limited because you need to get to unhappy work like me?"
They aren't staying past graduation. Most graduate at 24 due to taking a mission. Some go to grad school. Your silly logic woukd have everyone go work on an oil rig after high school.
So the person that maybe wasn't sure about school and decided to enter the workforce directly out of high school and doesn't start college until they're 21 becomes ineligible once they're 24? What about the person that joins the armed forces directly out of high school and then decides to go to college?
Life's hard and very often unfair. The problem begins when we start making exceptions and workarounds for everyone in the interest of fairness (which comes with very nebulous definitions).
We need to also remember what the fundamental purpose of college is. It is not to produce Olympic athletes or to help you get physically fit. Granted, football and basketball operate in a different universe than the other sports, but creating competitive opportunities and helping to pay for an education is not the primary mission of universities. No one is entitled to play sports at college. If college sports suddenly disappeared, would the need to obtain a degree suddenly vanish as well? Would campuses be empty?
Hard age limit of 24, full stop. If you chose service, faith, work, or do not have a reliable record of your birth, that should not matter to the NCAA. Sports are not a right nor are they an option for over 99% of students attending institutions of higher learning.
The BYU runners are generally very smart. They either go pro or they have great careers. They don't get 8 years other than due to Covid. Stop complaining. Their.women are elite and they don't do missions.
Hard age limit of 24, full stop. If you chose service, faith, work, or do not have a reliable record of your birth, that should not matter to the NCAA. Sports are not a right nor are they an option for over 99% of students attending institutions of higher learning.
Agree. 24. Period. End of sentence. Good bye if you are >24.
In distance running, physical age matters very little by the time athletes are 20-21. It matters not at all to college enrollment.
24th birthday and it is over. No exceptions. All you little byu apologists should agree to this because you claim that 19 is the peak and it is not an advantage for 28 year old to race teenagers.
Yeah, they keep saying that there is no advantage, but everybody who is honest and intelligent knows better.
I remember when the Kenyans first started coming to American college. the were recruited heavily by UTEP and Washington State. People like Henry Rono a great runner who set 4 world records in 1978 when he was a 26 year old college student competing against a 20 year old Alberto Salazar. But some said if you have the age cut off Mormons who have to do a mission or veterans who served in the military first would suffer.
The Ethiopian and Kenyan High Schoolers could probably win NCAA, Example Ethiopia had 5 Girls ages 16-18 who ran between 14:16 was The Fastest and 14:46 was The Slowest in the 5000 on the Track THIS YEAR. Same with the Men Eliud Kipchoge was World Champion at age 18 had he decided to go Run NCAA he undoubtably would have dominated.
Whine about the Age, but they would win at any age.
5 years to complete 4 years of competition, hard age cutoff on the 24th birthday. That allows plenty of time for redshirts, missions, military, staying in high school until 20, and whatever else shenanigans they can dream up. If you absolutely need six or seven years to compete after high school, then make that a priority instead of the extracurriculars you puttered around with. Do the missions or military after you are done competing. I'm sure that the church authorities can make exceptions for doing the missions after finishing eligibility, just as they do for allowing Mantz to compete on Sundays in order to make some money. The military probably doesn't care one way or the other about sending their soldiers back to college to race teenagers. It was the athlete's choice to do a mission or military instead of competing and they should have to live with what they thought was more important. Once you start, you get 5 years, and you are gone at 24.
So you know nothing about Mormons or Utah HS? Got it.
Setting aside missions or Mormons, asserting Utah HS kids graduate older than anywhere else is really bizarre.
According to the University of Utah, 26 is the average age of bachelor’s degree recipients; the youngest undergraduate is 19, the oldest is 64. Nothing in there or in my post about mormons or kids from anywhere else.
You wrote this, right? I mean, it’s right there.
”And most of the Utah kids aren't able to graduate high school at 18.”
Utah doesn’t run HS timing any different than anyone else and I’m sure most graduate at 18 everywhere in America. Why would you even think to write what you did? What would be the point to make something like that up? Oh right, I remember.
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