These are common questions we get from families and prospective recruits. Often a coach will tell a recruit that they will redshirt their freshman year and it is actually very common and nothing to worry about especially in large Division I programs.
Redshirt Definition:
The term “redshirt” is used to describe a student-athlete who does not participate in competition in a sport for an entire academic year. If you do not compete in a sport the entire academic year, you have not used a season of competition. For example, if you are a qualifier, and you attend a four-year college your freshman year, and you practice but do not compete against outside competition, you would still have the next four years to play four seasons of competition.
Each student is allowed no more than four seasons of competition per sport. If you were not a qualifier, you may have fewer seasons of competition available to you. You should know that NCAA rules indicate that any competition, regardless of time, during a season counts as one of your seasons of competition in that sport. It does not matter how long you were involved in a particular competition (for example, one play in a football game, one point in a volleyball match); you will be charged with one season of competition. Source NCAA
This redshirt year gives you a year to acclimate yourself to college academics, sports and a year to learn the system and grow physically and mentally. The main benefit is you don’t have to lose a year of eligibility while sitting on the sidelines. Athletic scholarships still cover athletes who redshirt their first year on the team.
21 Year Age Rule for Division I:
In Division I only, if a student-athlete has participated as an individual or as a team representative in organized sports competition, that kind of participation during each 12-month period after his/her 21st birthday and prior to initial full-time collegiate enrollment will count as one year of varsity competition in that sport. Any participation in organized competition during time spent in the U.S. armed services will be excepted. Source NCAA
It is more common that one thinks, especially for those coming out of the Military to re-kindle that desire to play college athletics.
Graduate Student Eligibility
A student-athlete who is enrolled in a graduate or professional school of the college or university which he or she previously attended as an undergraduate student may participate in intercollegiate athletics, provided he or she has eligibility remaining and is within five calendar years of initial full-time collegiate enrollment for Division I and within the first 10 full-time semesters of collegiate enrollment for Divisions II and III.
Also, a student-athlete who has eligibility remaining and is within the specified 10-semester period may participate while enrolled in a graduate or professional school at a Division II college or university other than the institution at which he or she completed an undergraduate degree.
Finally, a student-athlete who has eligibility remaining and is within the specified five-year period may participate while enrolled in a graduate or professional school at a Division I college or university other than the institution at which he or she completed an undergraduate degree, provided he or she meets the criteria of the one-time transfer exception to the general transfer residence requirement. That exception is as follows:
- The student-athlete must be seeking to participate in a sport other than baseball, football, basketball and men’s ice hockey, except that a student-athlete who seeks to participate in NCAA Football Championship Subdivision may use this exception only if transferring from a Football Bowl Subdivision program.
- The student-athlete may not have transferred previously from another four-year institution unless he or she transferred previously and received an exception to the transfer residence requirement because his or her institution either discontinued the sport or did not sponsor the sport in which the student-athlete is a participant.
- The student must have been in good academic standing and eligible to compete had he or she decided to remain at the previous institution.
- The student-athlete’s previous institution must certify in writing that it has no objection to the student-athlete being granted an exception to the transfer residence requirement.
NOTE: This exception does not apply to a student-athlete who attends a Division III institution for graduate school, unless the student-athlete is attending the same institution at which he or she was an undergraduate.
NOTE: If the student-athlete transfers to the certifying institution from a Division III member institution and meets the above-mentioned conditions, he or she may be eligible to compete but may not receive athletically related financial aid during that year. Source NCAA
Please don’t hesitate to keep asking your questions and we will post an article to help.
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- College Athletic Scholarships – What Scholarships Are Available?
