Do you have only 4 years of college to play a sport?
Or could you say, walk on as a junior and play 4 years by delaying your graduation or doing grad school?

1/10/2006 1:53:29 AM

Jed Paulsen was a grad student. Evtimov is one too, I think.

1/10/2006 8:58:01 AM

chris fucking wienke

1/10/2006 9:16:51 AM

In general, you get five years from the time you start college, to use your four years of athletic eligibility. However, nothing says you have to start college immediately after high school, so you get cases like Weinke, or the 40-year-old guy (retired from the military) who played football at South Carolina.

There are a couple of exceptions: if you miss two seasons due to injuries, you can petition the NCAA for a 6th year. Also, up to two years as a religious missionary don't count against your five years (i.e. most BYU athletes get 7 years).

You can graduate and keep playing while in grad school; this is not uncommon. In one bowl game I saw, there was a guy playing who had completed his master's degree in December; now that's impressive!

1/10/2006 9:51:56 AM

chris colmer was 43 when he left

1/10/2006 12:30:49 PM

you have 5 years to play 4 years

1/10/2006 12:56:55 PM

im pretty sure you get until at 26 after that you lose a year every year

1/10/2006 2:15:03 PM

I'll go ahead and post this here:

ATLANTA -- Georgia Tech forward Theodis Tarver was declared academically ineligible by the school, ending his college career.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2286779

Probably good for us Saturday

1/10/2006 2:22:11 PM

Here's some of the stuff about the guy at South Carolina.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/recap?gid=200509240070

South Carolina 45, Troy 20
By JEFFREY COLLINS, Associated Press Writer
September 24, 2005

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Blake Mitchell threw for 177 yards and two touchdowns before leaving with an injury and 40-year-old walk-on Tim Frisby caught a 9-yard pass late in South Carolina's 45-20 win over Troy on Saturday night.
...
Spurrier also got his old guy involved, having Heffner throw a short pass to Frisby with three minutes to go. Frisby, a father of six, walked on last year after 20 years in the U.S. Army. The crowd roared as Frisby lined up for the next play.

1/10/2006 2:46:06 PM

And here's something about the "BYU rule":

http://story.scout.com/a.z?s=132&p=2&c=386324

...the BYU players are on average older and more mature than their opponents due to the NCAA exemption in stopping the five year eligibility clock to allow for two years of missionary service.

1/10/2006 2:51:03 PM

The age just depends on the sport.. Football for one the age is later than other sports. I think most sports limit it to 24.

1/10/2006 3:30:20 PM