Redshirt (college sports)
Encyclopedia
Redshirt is a term used in American
college athletics
that refers to a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen his or her period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport
is four seasons, a number derived from the four years of academic classes that are normally required to obtain a bachelor's degree
at an American college
or university
. However, a student athlete
may be offered the opportunity to redshirt for two years, which allows the athlete to spread those four years of eligibility over six years. In a redshirt year, a student athlete may attend classes at the college or university, practice with an athletic team, and dress for play but he or she may not compete during the game. Using this mechanism, a student athlete has up to five academic years to use the four years of eligibility, thus becoming a fifth-year senior
.
The term is used as a verb
, noun
, and adjective
. For example, a coach
may choose to redshirt a player who is then referred to as a redshirt freshman
or simply a redshirt.
, a student athlete may redshirt to add size and strength prior to participating, since size and strength can be assets for many positions in football. As the college years coincide with the typical completion of physical maturity, using a year of eligibility in the last college year is generally more beneficial to the team and to the student athlete's potential professional prospects than it is to use the same year of eligibility in the first college year. Players, especially in football, may redshirt to learn the team's play book, since college teams typically run a greater number of, and more complex, plays than most high school teams. Common belief notwithstanding, NCAA redshirt rules state that any amount of participation in a competition (even one play in a football game) will trigger the use of a season of eligibility, and therefore that athlete so played may not redshirt that year.
An athlete may be asked to redshirt if he or she would have no opportunity to play as an academic freshman. This is a common occurrence in many sports where there is already an established starter or too much depth at the position in which the freshman in question is planning to play.
A special case involves the eligibility of a player who loses the majority of a season to injury. Popularly known as a medical redshirt, a hardship waiver may be granted an athlete who appears in fewer than 30% of his or her team's competitions (with none coming after the midway point of the season), then suffers a season-ending injury. A player who is granted such a waiver
is treated for the purposes of their eligibility as though he or she had not competed in that season.
On rare occasions, a player may be allowed to play in his or her sixth year of college if he or she suffered a serious injury which kept him or her from playing for more than one season. Former Oklahoma Sooners
quarterback
Jason White
is perhaps the best known example of this, as he had redshirted his freshman year, then subsequently tore
the ACL
in both knees, causing him to miss nearly two years of eligible playing time. A more recent example is current Houston Cougars
quarterback Case Keenum
, now the holder of multiple NCAA offensive records. His story is similar to that of White; Keenum redshirted his freshman year of 2006, and then tore an ACL three games into the 2010 season, which would have otherwise been his final year of eligibility.
The term redshirt freshman indicates an academic sophomore
(second-year student) who is in his first season of athletic eligibility. A redshirt freshman is distinguished from a true freshman (first-year student) as one who has practiced with the team for the prior season. The term redshirt sophomore is also commonly used to indicate an academic junior
(third-year student) who is in the second season of athletic eligibility. After the sophomore year, the term redshirt is rarely used, in favor of fourth-year junior and fifth-year senior
.
Athletes may also utilize a "grayshirt" year in which they attend school, but cannot enroll as a full-time student, and do not receive a scholarship for that year. This means that they are an unofficial member of the team and do not participate in practices, games, or receive financial assistance
from their athletic department. Typically, grayshirts are players who are injured right before college and require an entire year to recuperate. Rather than waste his or her redshirt, the player can attend school as a part-time regular student and then join the team later. This is also utilized by players with religious or military obligations that keep them out of school for a full academic year.
The first athlete known to extend his eligibility in the modern era of redshirting was Warren Alfson
of the University of Nebraska
in 1937. Alfson requested that he be allowed to sit out his sophomore season due to the number of experienced players ahead of him. In addition, he had not started college until several years after graduating high school
, and thus felt he needed more preparation. The year off worked; Alfson was All-Big Six Conference
in 1939 and an All-American guard in 1940.
, the term redshirt comes from the red jersey
commonly worn by such a player in practice scrimmage
s against the regulars.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
college athletics
College athletics
College athletics refers primarily to sports and athletic competition organized and funded by institutions of tertiary education . In the United States, college athletics is a two-tiered system. The first tier includes the sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies...
that refers to a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen his or her period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
is four seasons, a number derived from the four years of academic classes that are normally required to obtain a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
at an American college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
or university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
. However, a student athlete
Student athlete
A student athlete is a term used to describe a participant in an organized competitive sport sponsored by the educational institution in which he or she is enrolled, a term primarily used in the United States. It is used to describe the direct balance of a full-time student and a full-time athlete...
may be offered the opportunity to redshirt for two years, which allows the athlete to spread those four years of eligibility over six years. In a redshirt year, a student athlete may attend classes at the college or university, practice with an athletic team, and dress for play but he or she may not compete during the game. Using this mechanism, a student athlete has up to five academic years to use the four years of eligibility, thus becoming a fifth-year senior
Super senior
A super senior is a student in an American four-year educational institution such as a high school or university who has been attending the institution for 5 or more years or has more than the usual number of credits required to graduate without achieving a diploma or bachelors...
.
The term is used as a verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
, noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
, and adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
. For example, a coach
Coach
-Transportation:* Coach , an automotive vehicle for long-distance travel** Coach , the mode of transport using such vehicles** Coach USA, an American bus transport company** Coach Canada, a Canadian bus transport company...
may choose to redshirt a player who is then referred to as a redshirt freshman
Freshman
A freshman or fresher is a first-year student in secondary school, high school, or college. The term first year can also be used as a noun, to describe the students themselves A freshman (US) or fresher (UK, India) (or sometimes fish, freshie, fresher; slang plural frosh or freshmeat) is a...
or simply a redshirt.
Reasons
There are many reasons student athletes might become redshirts. They may redshirt to gain a year of practice with the team prior to participating in competition. In college footballCollege football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
, a student athlete may redshirt to add size and strength prior to participating, since size and strength can be assets for many positions in football. As the college years coincide with the typical completion of physical maturity, using a year of eligibility in the last college year is generally more beneficial to the team and to the student athlete's potential professional prospects than it is to use the same year of eligibility in the first college year. Players, especially in football, may redshirt to learn the team's play book, since college teams typically run a greater number of, and more complex, plays than most high school teams. Common belief notwithstanding, NCAA redshirt rules state that any amount of participation in a competition (even one play in a football game) will trigger the use of a season of eligibility, and therefore that athlete so played may not redshirt that year.
An athlete may be asked to redshirt if he or she would have no opportunity to play as an academic freshman. This is a common occurrence in many sports where there is already an established starter or too much depth at the position in which the freshman in question is planning to play.
A special case involves the eligibility of a player who loses the majority of a season to injury. Popularly known as a medical redshirt, a hardship waiver may be granted an athlete who appears in fewer than 30% of his or her team's competitions (with none coming after the midway point of the season), then suffers a season-ending injury. A player who is granted such a waiver
Waiver
A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege.While a waiver is often in writing, sometimes a person's actions can act as a waiver. An example of a written waiver is a disclaimer, which becomes a waiver when accepted...
is treated for the purposes of their eligibility as though he or she had not competed in that season.
On rare occasions, a player may be allowed to play in his or her sixth year of college if he or she suffered a serious injury which kept him or her from playing for more than one season. Former Oklahoma Sooners
Oklahoma Sooners football
The Oklahoma Sooners football program is a college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma . The team is currently a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association...
quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
Jason White
Jason White (American football)
Jason White is a former American football quarterback who played for the University of Oklahoma from 1999 to 2004, during which he won the 2003 Heisman Trophy...
is perhaps the best known example of this, as he had redshirted his freshman year, then subsequently tore
Anterior cruciate ligament injury
An injury to the anterior cruciate ligament can be a debilitating musculoskeletal injury to the knee, seen most often in athletes. Non-contact tears and ruptures are the most common causes of ACL injury....
the ACL
Anterior cruciate ligament
The anterior cruciate ligament is a cruciate ligament which is one of the four major ligaments of the human knee. In the quadruped stifle , based on its anatomical position, it is referred to as the cranial cruciate ligament.The ACL originates from deep within the notch of the distal femur...
in both knees, causing him to miss nearly two years of eligible playing time. A more recent example is current Houston Cougars
Houston Cougars football
The Houston Cougars football program is an NCAA Division I FBS football team that represents the University of Houston. The team is commonly referred to as "Houston" or "UH" . The UH football program is currently a member of the Conference USA intercollegiate athletic conference, and is coached by...
quarterback Case Keenum
Case Keenum
Casey Austin "Case" Keenum is a redshirt senior quarterback for the Houston Cougars football team. Keenum has already set several school records at the University of Houston and has positioned himself to become the NCAA's all-time leader in total passing yards in 2011...
, now the holder of multiple NCAA offensive records. His story is similar to that of White; Keenum redshirted his freshman year of 2006, and then tore an ACL three games into the 2010 season, which would have otherwise been his final year of eligibility.
The term redshirt freshman indicates an academic sophomore
Sophomore
Sophomore is a term used in the United States to describe a student in the second year of study at high school or university.The word is also used as a synonym for "second", for the second album or EP released by a musician or group, the second movie of a director, or the second season of a...
(second-year student) who is in his first season of athletic eligibility. A redshirt freshman is distinguished from a true freshman (first-year student) as one who has practiced with the team for the prior season. The term redshirt sophomore is also commonly used to indicate an academic junior
Junior
Junior may refer to:* Junior or Jnr , suffix to names* Junior , status of a student in High School or College.* Junior , an age athletics category - People :Junior:...
(third-year student) who is in the second season of athletic eligibility. After the sophomore year, the term redshirt is rarely used, in favor of fourth-year junior and fifth-year senior
Senior
Senior may refer to:* Senior citizen, a common polite designation for an elderly person in both UK and US English* Senior , a 2010 album by Röyksopp* Senior , a student in the final year of high school, college or university...
.
Athletes may also utilize a "grayshirt" year in which they attend school, but cannot enroll as a full-time student, and do not receive a scholarship for that year. This means that they are an unofficial member of the team and do not participate in practices, games, or receive financial assistance
Financial assistance
Financial assistance in law refers to assistance given by a company for the purchase of its own shares or the shares of its holding companies. In many jurisdictions such assistance is prohibited or restricted by law...
from their athletic department. Typically, grayshirts are players who are injured right before college and require an entire year to recuperate. Rather than waste his or her redshirt, the player can attend school as a part-time regular student and then join the team later. This is also utilized by players with religious or military obligations that keep them out of school for a full academic year.
Use of status
While the redshirt status may be conferred by a coach at the beginning of the year, it is not confirmed until the end of the season, and more specifically, it does not rule a player ineligible in advance to participate in the season. If a player shows great talent, or there are injuries on the team, the coach may remove the redshirt status and allow the player to participate in competition for the remainder of the year.The first athlete known to extend his eligibility in the modern era of redshirting was Warren Alfson
Warren Alfson
Warren Alfson was an American football guard and linebacker for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, as well as the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National Football League.-Early years:He was born and raised in Wisner, Nebraska...
of the University of Nebraska
Nebraska Cornhuskers football
The Nebraska Cornhuskers represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in college football. The program has established itself as a traditional powerhouse, and has the fourth-most all-time victories of any NCAA Division I-A team. Nebraska is one of only six football programs in NCAA Division I-A...
in 1937. Alfson requested that he be allowed to sit out his sophomore season due to the number of experienced players ahead of him. In addition, he had not started college until several years after graduating high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, and thus felt he needed more preparation. The year off worked; Alfson was All-Big Six Conference
Big Eight Conference
The Big Eight Conference, a former NCAA-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football, was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association by its charter member schools: the University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University...
in 1939 and an All-American guard in 1940.
Etymology
According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, UnabridgedWebster's Dictionary
Webster's Dictionary refers to the line of dictionaries first developed by Noah Webster in the early 19th century, and also to numerous unrelated dictionaries that added Webster's name just to share his prestige. The term is a genericized trademark in the U.S.A...
, the term redshirt comes from the red jersey
Jersey (clothing)
A jersey is an item of knitted clothing, traditionally in wool or cotton, with sleeves, worn as a pullover, as it does not open at the front, unlike a cardigan. It is usually close-fitting and machine knitted in contrast to a guernsey that is more often hand knit with a thicker yarn...
commonly worn by such a player in practice scrimmage
Scrimmage
A scrimmage, or exhibition game, is an informal sports contest or practice match engaged in for practice purposes which does not go on the regular season record. Scrimmage may also refer to:* Line of scrimmage, in American football and related games...
s against the regulars.