[TheOracle]

What’s the bad that could come out of it? As long as they keep the age rule I don’t see any negative to this?

I'm assuming this means, basically, that this means seniors could come back for a 5th year of high school. Correct?

Negative impact, that means the state has to foot the bill for an extra year of school for a lot of kids. Plus it means the possibility of freshman on the football field with 19 year olds. That's a physical risk. Plus it means schools that are built and staffed to support 4 grade levels are having to fit in extra students that were not accounted for. Any schools that are already shoe-horning kids into classrooms are going to have to potentially plan for an entire additional grade level worth of kids in their building. And they had better hope they're not understaffed. Plus, what classes do students take during their second senior year? Are there enough elective classes for those students to fill a class schedule when they take their high school victory lap?

States already said they wouldn’t foot the Bill. Freshman are already on the field with 19 year olds. And is there gonna be that many students to hold back where it stresses class size? I think you’ll see some schools start offering virtual classes with the way things have went. A lot of seniors leave at 12 o’clock now a days. They take two classes then either do a work release, college courses, or some sort of student aid.

I mis-spoke. Current KHSAA bylaws state "A student who becomes nineteen (19) on or after August 1 shall remain eligible for the entire school year." That means if we add another year, then we're going to have freshmen on the field with 20 year olds. Even more of a risk. Think of having a football player with the physical development of a 20 year old on the same field as a 14 year old, and tell me that's not running a major risk - especially the kind of player who's going through the process of holding back for an entire additional year of high school because they think it gives them a better shot at playing college ball. It's safe to assume that that kind of player is going to be athletically talented, right? So that means older, bigger kids who assumedly have relatively higher-tier athletic talent who are are allowed to pit themselves against youngsters.

And you can't say, "are there going to really be all that many students who hold back" without having a plan in place in case they actually DO. The fact is, they are opening themselves up to the possibility that every single senior in high school can stay on for another year. Of course that won't happen, but what happens if you do have a tiny school district that does happen to have too many players who stay on for a fifth year?

And if there's already a large portion of students who are leaving schools early as seniors, you just helped show that there isn't the curriculum in place in our schools to support an entire additional year of students in high school. So we're literally just paying for kids to have another year of school for the sake of sports. I love high school sports. Love them. But this bill is ridiculous. Is it unfair that some students had their high school athletic careers shafted? Absolutely. But you know what? Life's not fair.

Another thing I didn't bring up in my last post is the free and reduced meal requirements for schools. Schools are going to have to pay to feed a very large number of these kids. There are some high schools in Kentucky that have 85-90% of their students on free and reduced meals. That's another bill we're going to have to fund.....so some kids can play sports.

As for recruiting, I've talked to a lot of recruiters from a lot of colleges. Every one of them said, yeah, recruiting was harder this past year, but they still didn't see any drop in recruitment numbers. Will there be an impact for some of the small colleges out there (who rarely get the opportunity to offer meaningful scholarships to begin with)? Maybe. But I find it hard to believe that there will be any significant drop in the number of kids who are getting full rides and even half rides to colleges to play sports. Colleges WANT to fill their roster spots with scholarship players, and they have people hired who have the job to do exactly that. With AAU leagues and online resources like Hudl and all of the other avenues of recruiting to pass info around, those college recruiters are still getting their jobs done.