How is this related to age? I don’t believe there is an upper age limit to be a college athlete.
If there are no rules WRT to amateur status, you could also hav players coming back to school who maybe were flops in the NFL as well right?
The lack of rules at the moment comes from the fact the NCAA was ruled a monopoly. The major conferences could move together to come up with reasonable eligibility requirements, transfer rules, salary caps etc. IMO, they are going to have to do something.
I think in the short term you have increased tv viewership with new fans, but I think many who were mid level boosters and season ticket holders are going to start dropping as the chaos continues. I am already hearing that sentiment from life long Bama and Auby friends.
The minor league baseball analogy is spot on. It can be entertaining, but it is a casual, passionless watch due to in part to player turnover etc. If a fan doesn’t feel like the “most” of the players share the passion for playing for the school, how long will the fans feel the passion?
Federal age discrimination laws don't apply until you discriminate against someone over 40. Some state laws protect younger workers, but, generally, age is not a protected class.
NCAA Div 1 does not have an age limit, per se, but in theory an athlete is supposed to enroll in college within 12 months of graduating high school, and then they have 5 years to complete 4 years of eligibility. Then there are the exceptions for injury, transfer, COVID, military service (even if that makes you a 35 year old kicker for UVA) religious missions, etc., etc., and for some reason an athlete can go play minor league baseball for 9 years and THEN enroll in college for the first time and play QB for FSU.
So, yeah, it seems like those flimsy restrictions will soon fall.
And, as mentioned, why should a college limit its roster to people actually enrolled in the school? Seems like an unfair limit on someone's earnings.