Should there be age limits for college players? There seems to be a trend developing, whereby college coaches are recruiting European players who are 22 or 23 year old "freshmen." I think Oliver Weiss recruited a 24 year old "freshman" from Germany. I'm all for equal opportunity and all that, but this trend begs the question about age limits. I know, Chris Weinke was a 25 year old freshman football player at Florida State, but that is extremely rare in most sports, including football. Thoughts on age limits?
I think there are age limits for D-1 ball in the NCAA but I don't know what they are. Personally, I'm against age limits as it discourages non traditional students like ones who join the military out of HS or the ones who return to school later in life, etc... from participating. Those examples are ararely relevant in college soccer and I know the lack of age-limits allows some colleges to exploit the rule with European players but all in all, I'd rather not see one. I think the pressure for a college coach to not take older and foreign players needs to come from the athletic department, the soccer community and the supporters of the particular program.
Under the new NCAA age limit requirement, the athlete now loses their eligibility by the age of 26 I believe.
Re: Re: Age Limits In a perfect world, this would be the case. However, coaches face a lot of pressure to win, and it's a huge advantage to have a player from ages 22-25 instead of 18-21 (e.g. Simon Elliott carrying Stanford to the title game). My own feeling is that older players and non-US residents should be allowed to participate in most cases. However, they should not receive scholarships.
Re: Re: Age Limits Thanks. Last year we had a tennis player from Germany who was 25 or 26 when he graduated (with a 4.0 no less).
the age limit for division 1 sports (except football) is 25. football has no age limit (hence weinke winning the heisman at 27).
I remember a 30 yrs old basketball player at george mason university playing in the NCAA tournament 2 yrs ago. So I believe there's no age limit in basketball too.
Exceptions are made for military service. George Evans, the player in question, spent 10 years in the Army before enrolling at George Mason.
Re: Re: Age Limits And for church service and the Peace Corps as well. As a practical matter, the maximum age tends to be 26 if you've been playing the sport after age 21, but prior to actual matriculation. The NCAA counts any participation after 21 against the 5 year window. If you've not played after age 21 and prior to matriculation, you get the full 5 years regardless.