just another day at LRC wrote:
Can you imagine the reaction if US high school seniors got to race against US middle school 6th graders?
In most cases, it would be a 6-7 year difference, so a similar age gap between an 18 or 19 year old college freshman and a 5th, 6th, or 7th year college senior. Even if a high schooler took two years off a some point before their final year, I think that most intellectually honest individuals would agree that the individual who was 6 or 7 years older would still have at least a little bit of an advantage over the youngster.
And before anyone starts whining and crying about kids growing a lot between the start of middle school and end of high school, don't forget that the vast majority of individuals probably don't hit their physical peak until their mid to late 20s, so it's not like people automatically stop physically growing the minute they hit senior year of high school and everything is suddenly equal.
That said, the NCAA allows it, so I wouldn't call it outright cheating, but at the same point, to act like being 6-7 years older than someone doesn't potentially provide that person with any advantage at all seems to be intellectually dishonest.
In Kentucky, HS seniors get to race against 7th graders. No one appears to have a problem with it.