What is a redshirt? Explaining college football eligibility rules as decisions loom
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Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin has been the most efficient quarterback in college football this season, completing a whopping 80.9% of his passes in his first season as the Buckeyes‘ starter.
And he’s only a redshirt freshman.
Sayin, a Heisman Trophy contender, ranks first in FBS with a 91.1 QBR, a metric by ESPN that rates quarterbacks on a scale from 0-100 based on a variety of factors. Sayin is half-a-point better than USC’s Jayden Maiva, a junior with a 90.6 QBR.
Sayin could become the first freshman to win the Heisman since 2013, when Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston won college football’s top award. Winston won it a year after Johnny Manziel, who became the first freshman to win in 2012.
All three were redshirt freshman, though, as a true freshman has never won the Heisman.
Should Sayin win the award, and as the decision to redshirt certain players looms, what even is a redshirt? For some newer fans of the sport, here’s an explanation of what redshirt means.
What is a redshirt?
A “redshirt” is simply when a player sits out a year of college competition to retain a year of eligibility. College athletes typically have four years of eligibility, although can be a part of a team for five years with a redshirt.
Players in college football can redshirt as long as they play four or less games during a season. In the transfer portal era, it’s becoming more commonplace for players that fall out of favor in terms of playing time to sit out a season in order to retain the year of eligibility and transfer schools.
Redshirts are most common for freshmen, allowing first-year players to develop for a season before seeing the field.
College football eligibility rules
NCAA rules state players are allowed to compete in four seasons of competition across five years. Redshirt isn’t an official term in the NCAA rulebook, with the NCAA referring to the five-year rule for student-athletes.
Here’s the NCAA’s “five-year rule,” per entry 12.6.1 in the NCAA’s Division I manual:
“A student-athlete shall complete the student-athlete’s seasons of participation within five calendaryears from the beginning of the semester or quarter in which the student-athlete first registered for a minimum full-time program of studies in a collegiate institution, with time spent on an official religious mission, in the armed services or with recognized foreign aid services of the U.S. government being excepted.”
There are some exceptions to the rule, like a player suffering a season-ending injury or a severe illness keeping the player out of competition.
Players that competed in 2020 received an extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19, although nearly all players from that season will have exhausted eligibility after 2025.
Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia also received an extra season due to a court injunction that made junior college competition for any player that competed at the level in 2020 or 2021 not apply toward Division I eligibility for 2025. The waiver doesn’t apply for future athletes, though.
True freshman vs redshirt freshman meaning
A true freshman is when an athlete is in their first season of competition and college in general. A redshirt freshman is when a player is in their second year of college but their first season of competition.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is a redshirt? Explaining college football eligibility rules
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