What is a Redshirt?

Definition: A redshirt is a player who sits out an entire season of his or her sport in order to preserve a year's worth of eligibility. The term can be used as a noun (He's a redshirt), a verb (He's going to redshirt this season) or an adjective (The redshirt freshman is going to start at quarterback).

"Redshirt freshman" refers to a player in his second year of college -- an academic sophomore -- in his or her first year of athletic competition.

There are a number of reasons why a player might take a redshirt year:

• He might feel he needs an extra year to develop physically before competing at the Division I level
• He might want the extra time to get acclimated to the college, the team, or the system
• He might not have an opportunity to play right away due to depth at his position, and might take a redshirt season rather than spend a year on the bench.

Redshirt players can practice with their teams, but cannot compete in games.

Students can take redshirt years in any sport, but it is most common in football. The term is derived from the red practice jerseys traditionally worn by players not on the active roster.

See Also:

Players who miss a year due to injury may apply for medical redshirt status.

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What is a Medical Redshirt?

Definition: A medical redshirt is a student who misses an entire year of competition due to injury and is granted an extension of his or her athletic eligibility to replace the lost season.

In men's college basketball, a student who participates in less than 30 percent of his team's games may apply for medical redshirt status.

The term is derived from redshirt, the practice of sitting out a year by choice, usually to avoid wasting a year's eligibility on a season that would otherwise be spent on the bench. Redshirting is far more common in football than in basketball.

Examples:

Syracuse guard Eric Devendorf tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a game last December, and missed the remainder of the season. Because he had played in just 10 of Syracuse's 32 games, the Big East determined that Devendorf was eligible to apply for a medical redshirt. That request was granted in September, and as a result Devendorf is now classified as a junior athletically for the 2008-09 season.

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