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GRIZ GRIT: Fifth Year of Eligibility

By Beacon Staff

There’s always been a fair amount of confusion, mostly on the part of fans, about the collegiate athletics practice of redshirting.

And every few years there seems to be a discussion about altering eligibility rules again, such as making freshmen ineligible or requiring a player to remain in college two years before hiring an agent and declaring themselves eligible for the draft.

Currently, after enrolling full time in a collegiate institution – when the NCAA clock starts – a player has four years of eligibility to be completed in five years.

Now I’m not talking about a medical hardship, whereby schools petition the NCAA for additional eligibility – sometimes even a sixth year – because a player has sustained an injury. That is entirely different than a redshirt where a player takes a year off from game participation, although they can practice and be involved in other team activities.

Redshirting is common at the start of a young player’s career and can even occur after a player starts his college career right out of high school, then later opts for a redshirt season.

Ultimately such a decision rests with a player and his family, although obviously it is influenced by advice from the coaching staff.

Now I always believed that I’d rather have a player enjoy two senior seasons by taking a redshirt year right out of high school than playing immediately, but there are a plethora of exceptions, especially in basketball, where a player contributes to a team’s success at an early age.

But now comes this discussion, which might again be as least discussed among NCAA decision-makers, about whether the redshirt should just disappear and instead granting all players a fifth year of eligibility.

Mostly because of time constraints and travel requirements, many college players do not complete their undergraduate work in four years, with the average completion actually closer to the five-year mark (4.7 years at last glance).

And if a player does finish in four and have a year of eligibility remaining, say like UM quarterback Andrew Selle last year, they still can enroll in a master’s program and play a final season.

The current discussion centers just on football, although an argument could be made for men’s basketball where scholarships several years ago were limited to 13 instead of the 15 allotted to the women’s game. Some years there just are not enough bodies.

Such a proposal would especially affect Football Championship Subdivision schools where the scholarship limit – although they can be split – is some 30 less than at the Football Bowl Subdivision level of competition.

It’s all about attrition. Seasons are longer, let alone a postseason in football that now can stretch into January. And while a coach is hesitant to encourage a player to come off redshirt status just to play infrequently, say, on special teams, there have been several recent instances at the University of Montana where it has been difficult even to fill out a travel party because of a lack of athletes on a roster depleted by injury.

Such a five-year plan also would eliminate the disillusionment of a player toiling on what basically is a practice squad with little or no chance of seeing the field for an entire year. Maybe the time has come.