Thoughts on a 27 Year Old College Football Player

I'm all for college football players getting paid, and if they can get more in college than in the NFL, go for it. No one knows how long they are going to be able to play, especially a sport like football, so get it while you can. There needs to be some more rules around NIL and the transfer portal, but that is a topic for another day. But I did see some news recently that made me throw my hands up in frustration.

By now we all know about the Miami linebacker who is entering his eighth year of college football. That is wild and kind of odd to me, but Miami is a blueblood, was just in the national title game and they may be even better next season. Yesterday I read about another college football player who was just given his ninth year of eligibility. The player's name is Solomon Tuliaupupu and he plays linebacker for Montana. I read that he started his career at USC, transferred to Montana and has become an all conference player since signing with the Grizzlies. I understand that he got a waiver due to injuries, and add that to the extra year for COVID, and a redshirt season, Tuliaupupu will be a 27 year old fifth year senior when he suits up for Montana next season.

This seems like overkill. I don't get why he would get a waiver for a ninth season, but Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss was denied a sixth season. Rod Moore got a sixth season with Michigan due to injury, but Chambliss was denied. I wonder why they are so hard up to not let Chambliss play, but this linebacker at Montana gets a ninth season. Keep in mind that he will be 27 when the season starts. That is an adult. He could be a father at this point. My wife had our first kid when we were 29, only two years older than Tuliaupupu. He is going to have teammates that are 18 when they start practice. How will he engage and talk with them? What are they going to be able to relate to?

That's too old to still be in college. Some people were all up in arms because Indiana had one of the older rosters in college football last year. They averaged 24 years old. This kld is 27. He is older than a ton of professional football players. There are some guys that have come and gone in the NFL before 27. I get it, maybe Tuliaupupu will not be a pro football player, but continually putting it off for so many years will only hurt any shot he has at the NFL. Teams are going to draft much younger guys that they can mold in the team's vision. Tuliaupupu is already the player he is always going to be. He could walk into a few locker rooms currently in the NFL where he is one of the older linebackers, as a rookie. He would be going on 28 his first season in the NFL. That is some players' prime, or even late prime. He would just be entering the league. I just don't see a NFL front office taking a chance on a rookie only two years away from 30. Maybe Tuliaupupu knows this, knows that he will be done after college football, so he is just trying to make as much as he can at Montana. Or maybe he just loves the game and doesn't want to stop playing until he absolutely has to. But this is just overkill. This is where some of the problems lie with waivers and the portal and NIL. Some guys get preferential treatment, and it almost feels like they give it to players who are not in a power 4 conference. There's far fewer players that make the league that are not on a power 4 conference team. And when they do, they are usually older and undrafted. But they are not 28 as a rookie.

Props to this guy for playing the game he loves for as long as possible, but there has to be a point where a player moves on and tries to be a professional. Being a 27 year old fifth year senior is too much and needs to be fixed. I'll be curious to see him play just because he is far too old to be a college athlete, but this is the state of the game at the moment. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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