NCAA Division III years of eligibility

Tim,

Congrats on your son playing college ball.

Once a student-athlete enrolls and begins classes on a full time basis, that is 12 or more units per semester, he has five years to play four years of athletics. If your son red-shirts this year, he'll be able to play in years 2-5.

Tim,
In 2005, I believe, there were a number of revisions to DIII baseball. One of those involved redshirting.
I have not looked at those recently but I do believe your impression is correct. DIII is only permitted a redshirt for medical reasons. It may be that the coach has figured a way to approach this. I would inquire after consulting the NCAA rule book on DIII.

Just found this on the DIII baseball website. Those guys know their stuff so this would be close to gospel for me.

"s redshirting legal in Division III?
Posted On
Feb 12, 2007 at 03:46 AM You are not permitted to redshirt in Division III. Redshirting is the practice of having a player attend and participate in practices but not play in any games, preserving a year of eligibility. Medical redshirting is still permitted at the Division III level. The general guideline is that you must have played one-third of the scheduled games or less in order to be eligible. If you suffer a season-ending injury in that time-frame and can document it, your conference (or athletic director, if an independent) can file paperwork with the NCAA on your behalf to restore a season of eligibility. So-called "routine" redshirting is still permitted at other levels and to our understanding those redshirts are recognized by Division III. (You will want to confirm with your school's compliance officer if you are transferring in.) That is, if you redshirted outside of Division III and then transferred to a D-III school, you would not be forced to give up that year of eligibility. (To redshirt in this manner you may not appear in any games whatsoever.) Conferences are free to not recognize these redshirts, and in fact, the MIAC has not as long as we've been covering D-III. And of course, anyone who had a routine redshirt year at a Division III school before Aug. 1, 2004, has that redshirt grandfathered in."

Infielddad has it right; note that D III "redshirt" means no practices, no nothing, unlike D I and D II where the players practice with the team, even dress out and travel, just can't play in any games. I assume off season workouts are okay as they're "unofficial" without coaches present anyway.

Redshirt years from D I or II are honored for transfers, but the last time the D III Presidents voted, the measure allowing transfers to keep their redshirt year passed by only a very very slight margin.

D III has an on-going struggle happening-some schools see real value in athletics, and want to put to put money and resources into them, and want to have athlete-friendly policies while keeping high academic standards, while others want glorified intramurals. There's even been some talk of creating a D IV for the truly not-so-hot-on-sports schools, but it's unlikely to happen anytime soon.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lamar Fan 08:
Tim,

Congrats on your son playing college ball. He does have a redshirt year.

Tim, sorry, I should have researched D-III rules more closely. This is a good topic because my brother is an 08 and is looking at going to a Christian D-III. So to everyone else, thanks for the info.