@GeorgeC07 I'm very confident that admissions committees are not made up of exclusively retired or emeriti professors. There also will probably be a senior graduate student or two on the committee and multiple current professors. Also, the POI you want to work with will have immense sway in the decision to admit you or not. If he/she/they wants to work with you, they will make sure you are admitted. Maybe that is not so in your field, but in the Liberal Arts/Social Sciences/Fine Arts, that is how the process works.