Is this really fair?

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gophers141

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Saturday I watched the Ok St vs Texas game. What are thoughts for a starting QB that is older than the defending Super Bowl champion QB? Should the NCAA place a ban on athletes that have played pro baseball and come back to play college football?
 

I see nothing wrong with it. He still has his eligibility so long as he hasn't been paid to play that specific sport. I believe Chris Weinke won the Heisman
 


Apparently the extra years of wisdom and knowledge he gains by being 26, 27(?) gives him an unfair advantage, I assume the OP is saying. I can see why some may kind of question it, but I don't think at 26 he's that much more advanced than any 5th year senior who is 24 oftentimes. Royston's 24 right? I don't see a problem with it.
 

tjgopher said:
For what reason?
Click to expand...


If the athlete has went on and played Professional sports, I can see the argument as they were paid to play regardless if it is the same sport or not. Other than that, I don't see any other reason a 26 year old or even a 40 year old could be banned by the NCAA if they still have eligibility.
 


The advantage may be that he's a little smarter and mature. The disadvantage is he was away from football for a few years. I think it's pretty much a wash if you ask me.

He's doing well because he's a good player, not because he's older IMO.
 

This argument used to be directed at BYU, when they were a perennial power. The argument following the lines of, "most of their lineman have taken two years off to serve on missions, and upon return are significantly larger than their opponents giving them an unfair advantage"

While this may or may not be advantageous, since the NCAA is theoretically about amateur athletics, it seems age should have nothing to do with it. In fact, I think you could make a stronger argument that excluding older players could be considered age bias against players who for whatever reason cannot proceed directly to college (just like the BYU players).
 

I got no problem with it. I kind of root for guys who are in situations like that.
 

I think there was a rule once upon a time that if you were a pro in any sport, you were considered a pro for the sake of college eligibility. That changed quite awhile ago though. Former Blue Jay minor league catcher and Washington Redskin quarterback Jay Schroeder was one of the first guys I remember coming back to college in the early 1980s after playing pro baseball in the late 1970s. There may have been more and I may be completely wrong.
 



If age is alone is an unfair advantage these guys should be making a push for player of the year at their respective positions! ;)

http://espn.go.com/college-football...r-alan-moore-61-becomes-oldest-college-player
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2986313

While Flynt and Moore are a little extreme...I think guys like Weeden and Weinke are great for college football, with them you know they are playing for the love of game, not because it is one of the steps along the way to going pro, which may be the case with some players too young for the draft. Guys like Weeden after they are done with their college career know they have almost no chance left to have a pro career just based on their potential years left to play, so they are just enjoying competing without any sort of huge payout or rewards when their college career is over.

I think older returning athletes are becoming more of a regularity going forward. Most college students in general are now taking "non-traditional" routes to college or pursuing other endeavors first in contrast to the 4 years full-time at one place right out of high school and I think that is starting to carry over to college athletes too.

As an example, the last couple of years there have been several instances of D-I football players that enrolled after serving in the military and were of a non-traditional age...there was an excellent D-lineman at BC recently and I think I recall a Gopher walk-on recently that had been serving in the military for several years...cannot recall his name though? Also the oldest Tow-Arnett, Nathan was in his upper-20's while with the team. I think these different types of life and leadership experiences such military service can be an asset to teams.
 

The Gophers have a reserve DL named Curran Delaney, who served in the USMC after HS and is turning 26 on November 1.
 

Flip it around: What if a guy played in the NFL then joined a college wrestling team? He would have worked with NFL trainers those years, and his body would be that much more developed and defined.
The argument could be made that while other athletes are free to pursue training outside the program, they aren't getting paid while doing so.
 




But the NFL player will be very out of practice with wrestling. He will have had extensive help with training, but not the sort of training a wrestler would have. An NFL player who wanted to wrestle would have to completely retrain and reshape his body. His body may be ideal for a football player, but not for a wrestler.
 

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