What's the benefits/risks with keeping a player back a school year?

RJM posted:

I don’t see anything wrong with reclassifying if playing a D3 sport is going to provide an academic advantage and potential professional (real world) advantage. Reclassifying for the purpose of playing D3 sports is silly. Reclassifying to use sports to get into a NESCAC or similar isn’t.

A friend’s brother reclassified to play D3 football at Keene State. That’s silliness. It was even sillier his parents thought he was college material. He was home in a year. Looking back it’s amusing a professional guidance counselor (the mother) couldn’t see what was best for her own kid. 

Agreed.   

This thread has certainly pulled apart the myriad ways one can keep a kid back a year and more importantly the pros and cons of doing it.   

In today’s LA Times, there is an article about the California state hs basketball championships “Freshman leads View Park Prep”. I thought about this thread when later in the article, “Johnson, 16, scored 18 of his game high 22 points in the first half.”  So if he is 16 as a freshman, he will be at least 20 when he is a senior. I believe California has a rule that you can be no more than 20 as a senior. I don’t begrudge his family for holding him back 2 years as they are playing the system within the rules. But it makes for a somewhat unlevel playing field.

Most states have rules about losing eligibility if turning twenty during a school year, during a sports season or specific years and month age a student may be and allowed to participate. These rules typically do not apply to privates who are not part of the state association.