Does the Mission age change help or hurt?

I do not know specific months when players leave or return so I cannot speak informatively. But what does this do for us, specifically at the QB position. Suppose Tanner leaves immediately. Does that bring him back too early and cause a QB conflict with Taysom or does that allow him to redshirt and play back up for a year (an extra year?) thus becoming the starter as a Jr. instead of a Soph? What other players might that impact. How difficult will it be for coaches to adjust with Schollie's awarded and available?



Any with inside info on how these things work, please chime in!



Go Cougs!!!

J. Child

Ammon, ID

I'm not sure. Will be wrinkle for a couple years, then I think it will be better overall.

It'll give kids an uninterrupted 5 yrs to play. IMO that's better. I bet this also translates to more players who will change allegiances from other schools to BYU while on their missions-- they won't feel as entrenched in another school without that first yr. This is clearly evidence that the brethren put the football team first.

May help. Wont hurt. More flexibility helps.

Definitely changes things.



Will help things. And, could hurt things.



Positives will outweigh negatives. Athletes is they decide to go at 18 will be younger when they get back.



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Certainly one of the biggest positive is this: if a SUPERB athlete wants to serve a mission, play for 2 years at BYU, and enter the NFL at 22, he now can.

Hill would likely still be at Stanford if this had happened earlier. Mangum may be back earlier



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It's actually going to hurt in the near-term. Because Bronco is now going to have to juggle 19-year-olds AND 18-year-olds leaving on missions. It's going to be really difficult until the rhythm of the two groups starts to stabilize.



There are potentially several recruits in the class that Bronco signs in Feb that he might be counting on next year that are now going to go straight on a mission instead of enrolling.

Utah's athletic teams could experience side effects as well. If young men or women choose to leave on their missions before joining a college team, they may spend several years at the very start of their career without training or practice.



Responding to a question on the matter, Holland said ""We think maybe they'll get back sooner and participate better," and that athletes could go on to play a full four years uninterrupted.

SpiffCoug wrote:
It's actually going to hurt in the near-term. Because Bronco is now going to have to juggle 19-year-olds AND 18-year-olds leaving on missions. It's going to be really difficult until the rhythm of the two groups starts to stabilize.



There are potentially several recruits in the class that Bronco signs in Feb that he might be counting on next year that are now going to go straight on a mission instead of enrolling.

I think it helps in the near term, a lot. Basically it just relaxes a constraint. Obviously you don't HAVE to go right when you turn 18, but now a kid can leave whenever is best, whereas before he had to wait until he turned 19 which was usually during his Freshman year which disrupts things quite a bit.



The other thing that will change is that since a kid can leave right after HS, he doesn't need to sign a LOI before his mission ... so football programs that don't value missionary service (ever program except BYU) won't be able to get kids on campus under the pretense of letting them serve after their freshman year, and then switching the bait. Also, while BYU will not actively recruit any currently serving elders, missionaries currently have a way of seeing the light and transferring to BYU (Hill, Nelson, etc, etc) now they won't have to transfer, just apply.

Consider if all of our recruits serve before playing ball then you only lose your senior class. The revolving door will slow down quite a bit for planning purposes. What would be crazy is that in 2-3 years there might be more kids returning than normal. Will we have enough scholarships for them when they return?

It could/can hurt considerably in the short term. BYU potentially could lose almost an entire recruiting class.



BYU could potentially have TWICE as many recruits/players leaving on missions this year, without an equal amount of return missionaries returning.



The Cougars might have basically been put on probation with reduced scholarships for the next few years.

Scholarships will be available, we just won't get the kids we normally do. We will probably get more JC guys to fill the gap.

What's the potential impact on academic progress and graduation rates?

HoosierCougar wrote:
What's the potential impact on academic progress and graduation rates?

As long as the players leave in good academic standing they should be ok. If they leave before attending, then it won't be a factor.

Probably should help a lot. They would be in school 4-5 years instead of 6-7 years. I am trying to figure out if it would help kids who serve then go the JC route.

It might actually help. I know I was a much better student and "study-er" after serving my mission than before.

Good point, would a higher test score get a kid into the Y?

I don't think Bronco ever "counts on" any freshman, if he gets something out of them, it's a bonus. And it doesn't matter if they leave at age 18 or age 19, they still leave, they're in the pool of "missionaries" and you count two more years before they return. They're age when leaving is irrelevant.