As I’ve made reference to in other posts, I am pretty new to football.

But, approaching this question from a ‘scientific’ perspective, here is how I would handle it. The essential hypothesis being made is that there is a relationship between players’ age (IV) and players’ performance (DV). This relationship is assumed (by others) to be Positive, Significant, and if I understand them correctly, Direct.

The first thing I’d do is look for the correlation between NCAA players age and performance. If the correlation is not significant, or is not positive, then the whole argument falls flat. If this were the case, then people would have to argue that across the NCAA, age is not correlated with performance, but at BYU it is! This of course would be nonsense.

The idea that there is a direct relationship between age and performance should be pretty easy to debunk. Clearly it is not age alone that influences performance, but rather, what is assumed to come with age (other variables positively correlated with age). It is assumed that older players are more experienced, have spent more time practicing, have more expertise, are potentially stronger, and are more mature. It is these variables that actually effect performance, not age. So age is probably indirectly related to performance (as are a hundred other variables) with a number of mediating variables in between.

In the case of BYU players, the question is, does serving a mission increase the players experience (No), number of hours practicing (No), football expertise (No), make them physically stronger (No), or more mature (Probably). So the only advantage an athlete may get is they are more mature: emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. However, this is ignoring all of the potential downsides that come with that maturity. I’d imagine players’ priorities in life also change. Football moves from the #1 thing in their life down to #4 or #5. They are probably more realistic about their chances of going Pro (which are greatly reduced by the mission) and put added emphasis on their schooling, starting a family, and avoiding concussions and life altering injuries. I’d imagine many players are more cautious in their decisions and more risk averse. Not to mention the 6 months (or more?) it will take them to get back into the physical shape they were in before the mission.

I would doubt you would be successful in communicating any of this to someone, so I’d just act like the person was literally the first person to ever think of this and praise their intellect, ingenuity, and football expertise—then suggest that they should look into coaching.