Age a Discretion??

[iref4him]

I have a friend of mine. He is probably in th top 20 officials in the state. He has gone to the state tourney's and has a DII Men's end of year tournament. He wants to move up to DI. He met with a league commisionor today who told him that he has all the tools and can work at the DI level. But, he is 49 years old. He was told that no DI conference will pick him up due to his age. He called me quite dejected. He was told that he probably won't be picked up because if he made it he would only have 5 years to give a conference, before he is to old.

Should age have a bearing on one's ability or not?