How does Lowering Age to 18 for Missions Affect Recruiting?

I think it is an inspired change in the program that will benefit young men and the football program alike. A lot of things can happen in a year and most young men who are ready to serve end up just waiting around like they are in limbo. Being ready to serve is a great natural progression from seminary and Young Men program into missionary service, and puts the onus to get Young Men ready earlier. I feel much more confident that my little girl, who has always talked about serving a mission, will go now that it is only six months after she graduates high school (someone would have snatched her up before she turned 21--I am sure of it).



While I think it is great for the Youth of the church, what affect do you think it has on football? I see it as advantageous in the long term because there will be four straight years (five if you count the redshirt) after a mission for the person to play football. I think that continuity is important as players will not forget everything they learned prior to a mission or have to adjust to new coaches upon their return (hopefully coaching situations will be stable). While not necessarily an advantage to the football program, I also think that more football players will choose to serve, knowing that it will not break up their football playing. In fact, if I were a top flight recruit, I might not sign with anyone, serve my mission, and then see what interest there was in me. That may also mean we see more LDS recruits coming to BYU because serving a mission has seemed to attract several to BYU.



On the downside, we will need to look to the JC ranks for a couple of years until these things sort themselves out, but we typically do not rely on true freshman as contributors (Jamal Williams being the exceptional exception).

I wonder how this will affect the Letter of Intent. Right now, an LOI is good for 18 months - at which point a player is a recruitable athlete again. If a kid "signs" with BYU but goes straight on a mission, they wouldn't have to sit out a season if they transfer like they currently would have to if they attended BYU for a year before leaving.

Is it better to get exposed to college and the football program for a year and then head off on the mission, or go straight on a mission and come back to the real world, start school, and get introduced to the football program? I don't know. I like the idea of having uninterrupted play, but I think players that go on missions without playing are less tied to the program and there is more chance that you lose top recruits to other schools after their missions. By the junior and senior year it all evens out. For the early years who knows...

Little to none.



The concept is still the same. BYU has to get a kid to tell them when he plans on serving a mission, and then look at how it fits into the timeline with everybody else.



Maybe the first year or two it might make things tricky, but if there are any surprises, finding a good JC players seems a pretty simple solution.