This is a good read on the proposed change to redshirt rule (the bolded part is the actual rule change):
What the proposed redshirt rule change would mean for college football
https://theathletic.com/231624/2018...-rule-change-would-mean-for-college-football/
Memphis coach Mike Norvell had a difficult decision to make, one that would affect a freshman football player much more than him.
Memphis had lost two safeties to injuries in the American Athletic Conference championship game at UCF. Next up on the depth chart was true freshman Quindon Lewis, who was with the team that day in Orlando but hadn’t played all season. Norvell had a choice: Keep Lewis on the developmental shelf or take off his redshirt and cost him a year of eligibility for playing in part of one game.
“We moved a corner to safety just to get through the game without burning somebody’s redshirt,” Norvell told The Athletic.
The Tigers lost the game 62-55 in double overtime.
If a new rule proposal goes through, that decision could be a lot easier and not cost anyone anything.
The Atlantic Coast Conference has submitted a proposal to allow all players to participate in any four games without losing a redshirt, the designated term for a player who practices with the team but does not participate in game competition, thus preserving a season of playing eligibility. The proposal will be voted on by the NCAA Division I Council in April. If passed, it could go into effect as early as this fall but would not be retroactive to past seasons.
Currently, a football player uses a year of eligibility after his first play. If he is injured early in the season and misses the rest of the year, an appeal for a medical redshirt to regain that year of eligibility is possible.
This proposal would, in some ways, mitigate the use of medical redshirts.
The idea was hatched by American Football Coaches Association executive director Todd Berry more than a decade ago and is one he publicly pushed beginning a year ago. He points out that the days of 120 scholarships and 10-game football seasons are long gone. Teams now have 85 scholarships and could play as many as 15 games. The purpose and value of a redshirt has changed.
“This is all about the student-athlete,” Berry said in January at the AFCA Convention in Charlotte. “If anybody cares about the student-athlete, this is the first thing that should be passed.”
It’s hard to find any coach who opposes the proposal, and for good reason. They wouldn’t have to base a freshman’s ability off preseason camp, and they’d get more available bodies.
“I think it’s great for everybody involved,” Norvell said. “For the student-athlete, sometimes those decisions are made late in the season and he has no control over it. When you see that and it costs them a year, it’s a shame. … For the kids, it allows them to stay engaged and in tune with what’s going on, because their time could be on the horizon. In both capacities, it’s a great rule and a great thought.”
Coaches would have leeway in how they apply the rule. Some might suit up a freshman early to see if he is worthy of playing the whole season. Some might save freshmen for later in the season in case the team has suffered injuries. It could depend on the player and his physical and mental development.
“I had a receiver come in this year at 147 pounds,” Western Michigan head coach Tim Lester told The Athletic. “By midseason, he was 180 pounds and ready. He couldn’t have played at 147 pounds. By the end, he wasn’t pushing people around, but he could hold his own and he would have definitely played the last four games, if he could have. It’s good for their development, and it’s good for the coaches that they have the option to field a better team.”
Baylor head coach Matt Rhule told The Athletic that he’s “1,000 percent” in favor of the rule.
“We had more injuries than any team I’ve ever been around this year, and if I could have put a couple kids out there at the end of the year, I think it would have been really beneficial for them,” Rhule said. “I think it would have been way safer for some of the kids that we played.”
Big 12 commissioner and NCAA Football Oversight Committee chair Bob Bowlsby told The Athletic that the proposal still needs to be “debated, modified and massaged” before it’s voted on in April. The feedback process is ongoing, and amendments could come up.
“It’s hard to know what it might look like by the time it gets all the way through,” he said.
Coaches love the idea. Student-athletes voiced support in January at the NCAA convention. Some administrators also have come out in support, but some details could prolong the discussion.
Georgia Southern athletic director Tom Kleinlein told The Athletic he would rather the idea stick to two games early in the season.
“At the end of the day, you should be able to put a kid in for two games and be able to decide in that time if he’s good enough to play for you,” he said. “I also think those games should be limited to maybe the first half of the season. I think we’re getting to a situation where, if we allow it to be any four games, you can literally take your entire freshman class and play them in a bowl game and they still have a year. That concerns me. The number of scholarships we’re at, we still have a pretty good depth of player.”
Bowlsby sees a lot of positives to the proposal. Still, questions about what it could mean for other sports or the five-year eligibility clock still need to be addressed. He’s engaged with coaches about their thoughts, but he’s also listening to the other parties.
“The biggest challenge, and Todd and I had talked about this, is (that) the five-year rule with the new redshirting rule is very different than it would be in any other sport,” Bowlsby said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t pass. It actually makes a lot of sense in many ways. It especially makes sense if you can get your arms around some of the hardship aspects of it and the number of years that it takes to complete your degree and things like that.
“So, it’s a long ways from being passed, but I think we're at a point where we can think innovatively about some of the problems that have been around for a long time, and that's one of them that I think is going to continue to get some traction.”
Berry has worked with conferences to help with proposals. The ACC’s is the only one on the table right now, but others have been in the works. “I don’t know that anybody’s thought about it until we proposed it last year,” Berry said. “I tried to get this on the ballot in 2001 when I was the coach at Army, through the board of trustees. It just never made it far.”
In 2016, West Virginia was forced to burn the redshirt of true freshman running back Martell Pettaway in late November because of an abundance of injuries to backs. Pettaway rushed for 181 yards on 30 carries in his debut but only had 19 carries in the final two games. Several times, Berry has pointed to that situation as a problem this redshirt proposal would solve.
On the surface, the idea makes sense. But in the NCAA legislative process, where no two members have identical priorities, things are rarely simple.
“This needs to pass,” Berry said. “It needs to get passed right now.”
