Red Shirt

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

What does in mean when a football player is called a Red Shirt Freshman? Thanks.

[sioooux]

Good old wikipedia:

Redshirt is a term used in American college athletics. Typically, a student-athlete has four years of eligibility in a given sport, to coincide with the standard four-year calendar for obtaining a bachelor's degree. For various reasons (see below) some student-athletes opt to not compete with the team for their first year attending a university, but to only attend classes and practices with the team; this process is known as redshirting. The student-athlete will not use one of his or her four years of eligibility in that season. Using this mechanism, a student-athlete has up to five academic years to use the four years of eligibility. However, each student-athlete has at most four years of actual competition with the varsity team.

[The Sicatoka]

You have five years to complete four seasons of college playing eligibility.

Most players (in football at least) practice with the team during the first year but do not play (and thus do not use up a year of playing eligibility).

Thus, the year after that is their second year as a college student, but their first year on the active roster. Those folks are normally called "redshirt freshmen".

The NCAA doesn't officially recognize the term "redshirt". It's a colloquial phrase to describe someone "on the five year clock but not using eligibilty".

Shall I confuse you further and talk about "medical redshirts"?

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

You have five years to complete four seasons of college playing eligibility.

Most players (in football at least) practice with the team during the first year but do not play (and thus do not use up a year of playing eligibility).

Thus, the year after that is their second year as a college student, but their first year on the active roster. Those folks are normally called "redshirt freshmen".

The NCAA doesn't officially recognize the term "redshirt". It's a colloquial phrase to describe someone "on the five year clock but not using eligibilty".

Shall I confuse you further and talk about "medical redshirts"?

Sure! Thanks for the replys. In light of learning what a "redshirt" is I will take a stab at it though. A "medical redshirt," I would guess, is an athlete who is misses one of his seasons of eligibilty do to a medical situation. He is then alowed another year of eligibilty, athough it still comes out to 4 seasons of acctual play.

[PCM]

And then there are the Weston Dresslers of the world who was a "true freshman."

[The Sicatoka]

Sure! Thanks for the replys. In light of learning what a "redshirt" is I will take a stab at it though. A "medical redshirt," I would guess, is an athlete who is misses one of his seasons of eligibilty do to a medical situation. He is then alowed another year of eligibilty, athough it still comes out to 4 seasons of acctual play.

Not a bad assessment at all. Actually quite good.

To apply for a "medical redshirt" (again a colloquial term, I believe the term is really "medical waiver") you can not have played in more than 20% of your team's scheduled games and none of the games you played in can be in the second half of your season. If you meet those, and have suffered a season-ending injury, you can apply to the NCAA for another year of eligibility (to replace the one lost to injury).

Examples:

Ryan Hale got hurt in Game 8 of the 2001-2002 hockey season. He just made it under the 20% of games.

Brandon Strouth* got hurt in Game 2 of the 2005 football season. Again Game 2 of 11 (less than 20%).

Neither played in the second half of their seasons.

Each got an extra year of play*.

* Strouth is a "junior" by playing eligibility right now which is the same status he started last season at.

** Hale was a freshman with Spiewak and Notermann, but was on the team the year after those two were done because of his "extra" year.

[siouxforeverbaby]

Not a bad assessment at all. Actually quite good.

To apply for a "medical redshirt" (again a colloquial term, I believe the term is really "medical waiver") you can not have played in more than 20% of your team's scheduled games and none of the games you played in can be in the second half of your season. If you meet those, and have suffered a season-ending injury, you can apply to the NCAA for another year of eligibility (to replace the one lost to injury).

Examples:

Ryan Hale got hurt in Game 8 of the 2001-2002 hockey season. He just made it under the 20% of games.

Brandon Strouth* got hurt in Game 2 of the 2005 football season. Again Game 2 of 11 (less than 20%).

Neither played in the second half of their seasons.

Each got an extra year of play*.

* Strouth is a "junior" by playing eligibility right now which is the same status he started last season at.

** Hale was a freshman with Spiewak and Notermann, but was on the team the year after those two were done because of his "extra" year.

So, how did Robbie Bina fit into that or did he have something different?

[The Sicatoka]

So, how did Robbie Bina fit into that or did he have something different?

Robbie's 2004-05 season (injury at end) counts as a year of eligibility.

He was medically unable to play last year (and the five year clock was ticking).

However, didn't use a "freshman redshirt" year (played as a true freshman) and, more importantly, he didn't play at all in 2005-2006 so he spent zero eligibility (no need to apply for anything).

He still has two years to use his two remaining years of eligibility. He's a "junior" this year and a (colloquialism again) "fifth-year senior" next year.

[siouxforeverbaby]

Robbie's 2004-05 season (injury at end) counts as a year of eligibility.

He was medically unable to play last year (and the five year clock was ticking).

However, didn't use a "freshman redshirt" year (played as a true freshman) and, more importantly, he didn't play at all in 2005-2006 so he spent zero eligibility (no need to apply for anything).

He still has two years to use his two remaining years of eligibility. He's a "junior" this year and a (colloquialism again) "fifth-year senior" next year.

ok, thanks for explaining that.

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

If a player is a redshirt freshman can he also later be a medical redshirt? Or can he only be an athlete for 5 years with 1 redshirt year? (as apposed to 6 years with a redshirt freshman year and a medical redshirt year)

[Smoggy]

I believe that a player has 6 years to finish 4 years of eligibility. That's why Glas was around for 6 years. He did have a redshirt year, but also sat out two spring semesters from football. Of course I might have totally messed that up.

Mustard playing 2 years of fb after 4 years of basketball must be some sort of weird case as well.

[UND92,96]

I believe that a player has 6 years to finish 4 years of eligibility. That's why Glas was around for 6 years. He did have a redshirt year, but also sat out two spring semesters from football. Of course I might have totally messed that up.

Mustard playing 2 years of fb after 4 years of basketball must be some sort of weird case as well.

If I'm not mistaken, the rule is that you have 10 semesters to complete your eligibility. In Mustard's case, he played four years of basketball (never red-shirted), so he still had two semesters of eligibility for another sport. He played football in the fall of 2000, presumably wasn't in school the spring semester, and then played again in 2001. At least, I think that's how it worked. Another weird case is current USD football Desmond Allison, who played basketball at Kentucky for a couple of years in the late 90's. He was kicked off the team in 2000, and then I believe attended an NAIA school for basketball for a year. Somehow, 4-5 years later, he ended up at USD, where he played football last fall. Almost unbelievably, he is playing again this year. It's obviously very rare that you see somebody stretch out their 10 semesters of eligibility over 8 years!

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

Thanks guys!

SiouxSports is a good place to get answers on sports.

[Sioux27]

Scott Guldseth from the basketball team in the early 90's is another example of a player who had quite a resume for a medical hardship, transfer, and redshirt year.

LSU for his freshman year (Not sure if he redshirted at LSU or UND), UND for 5 years which included a year of medical hardship eventhough he played much of that season.

[sioooux]

I believe Brady Trenbeath came in and took his Medical redshirt his first year, and just redshirted last season and is now only considered a freshmen this year.

[Shawn-O]

I believe Brady Trenbeath came in and took his Medical redshirt his first year, and just redshirted last season and is now only considered a freshmen this year.

If I recall, he suffered a bad neck injury during his senior year of baseball at Cavalier, so I think you're spot on.

[sioooux]

Yeah I remember watching him pitch in the state championship game his senior year with a neck brace. It was unreal he threw 9 innings and like 160 some pitches and got the win for their third straight state championship. It was one hell of a performance. UND is lucky to have this kid, cause he is a hell of a talent if not for that neck injury he would have been class B player of the year in baseball, and was class B basketball player of the year and AA football player of the year. Just glad he has been able to show everybody what he can do, and from what I've seen he will keep getting better.

[The Sicatoka]

There's some subtle difference between DI and DII regarding "five years" versus "ten semesters". Seeing how DI is what's ahead (and that I think primarily in 'hockey') I think of "five years".

That difference allowed UND Football to pick up an all-conference offensive lineman from SDSU for this season because his DI eligibility was up, but he was still eligible in DII for another (football) season.