Redshirt Freshmen

Pros: Most students take more than 4 years to get a degree; minimizing innings at 18-19 years of age may minimize risk of arm injury during developmental years.

Depends on the depth of the pitching staff obviously, but he's going to be a teen-ager competing for innings with grown men. Look at the roster and do your homework. How many returning upperclassmen are pitchers? Visit the college and have him talk to the current players. Is red-shirting common? etc, etc..

It's not a bad idea for many guys.

TDad - My son ended up RS last year as a freshman.

Negatives: It's hard to sit out that year and watching everyone else progress and play. However, if you're going to be sitting more than playing, you'd be watching "everyone" else anyway. If you use the RS during freshman year, and later are injured, you can't use another RS year, so you always face the risk of missing another year down the road but having to use a year of eligibility for that one.

Positives: You're a year older, wiser, and stronger when entering the rotation/lineup. You get a year of classes under your belt because very few players actually graduate in four years... thus you'd be able to play your final year and perhaps even take some grad classes that last year while playing.

For my son, it worked out very well overall. His scenario was a little different though because he went to a JUCO and then transferred on at the end of his freshman year. Compared to other entering freshman, he knows what's expected and again, he has a year of classes on his transcript.

I think it's an individual choice, but for many it can be a very good thing and something to consider seriously. I guess if the player in question is just now being recruited, one question I would have is would he have a scholarship as part of that RS offer.... I'm thinking probably not and that might be a consideration in a case like this one.

If you were injured and sit out an entire year wouldnt that be a medical redshirt and still possible to do if you sat out as a redshirt not from injury in a previous year?

baseballtoday - I had no idea you could RS twice. I had always understood you have five yrs of eligibility in which to play four. If that's the case, then that would certainly negate one of my concerns about choosing to do it early on.

Does anyone know this this rule? I wonder if it would depend on level perhaps?

A medical redshirt, which would extend the number of years to get in your 4 years of eligibility is not automatic. You have to petition the NCAA, but, my understanding is that it is usually granted.

Of course, if you are on a partial scholarship, you hope your parents want to pick up the balance for 6 years of college instead of 4.

Thanks H3! So, I guess it is possible to extend the five out to six. That's something new for me, but obviously important to consider in the equation. Extending the four years out to five makes sense to me in many ways. I guess with six years though the issue wouldn't be completing an undergrad, but going on to grad classes and many players don't plan on doing that.

Thanks baseballtoday for bringing up that subject!

The Ohio Valley Conference had petitioned the NCAA to automatically grant 5 years of eligibility for D1-AA football only.

The review committees were split on the merits of the proposal and it was withdrawn last month.

For now, 5 years of eligibility in any sport remains a dream.

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Have had two redhsirts...

Early spring....very down, no attention, no games,...very hard time for a parent if going through it for the first time...more time for study however!...great time to get on top of the body, the system, and the academics.

Late spring...Elation...when they see that most/all of the freshman got little if any playing time AND gave up a year of eligibility.

RS Fall...Bigger, stronger, faster, very clear on what to expect...more mature, more comfortable with their place in the program...ahead academically...the challenge is now the lack of game experience...

...a big win IMO.

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quote:

Originally posted by HiHardHeat:
The Ohio Valley Conference had petitioned the NCAA to automatically grant 5 years of eligibility for D1-AA football only.

The review committees were split on the merits of the proposal and it was withdrawn last month.

For now, 5 years of eligibility in any sport remains a dream.

Are you saying actually 5 years of playing on the field? I would not think that would be good.

Remember Jason White? The OU quarterback a few years back? I believe he was RS his freshman year and then received a medical RS sometime during his collegiate career also. He was there for 6 years.

quote:

Originally posted by Novice Dad:

Are you saying actually 5 years of playing on the field? I would not think that would be good.

That was the proposal. It was based on a couple of facts:
1). The average student takes 4.8 years to graduate
2). A red-shirt freshman season is becoming common in football
3). Universities were paying scholarship money to players for 5 years anyway since they redshirted so many freshmen football players.

It was proposed as a cost reduction measure in D1-AA football only. Since the D1-AA schools only have 63 scholarships spots, it would make them more competitive. In addition, football is a head-count scholarship versus an equivalent scholarship (like baseball) and they aren't "split" between two or more players. The change (in football) would be that they would eliminate the "red-shirt" year, so players would have 5 years to play 5 seasons.

The competition committee liked it, the eligibility committee hated it, other committees were ambivalent to it. It was being kicked back for top-tier review when it ended up being tabled at the request of the OHV. That was last month.

Personally, I thought it was a bad idea. The net effect is too unpredictable.

Typically, you only get ONE shot at a redshirt. The "6th" year is certainly not automatic, and only in extreme circumstances, like a very serious injury, or a second serious injury. Thus, it's EITHER a medical OR a regular redshirt. And the medical redshirt is restricted to a player who is injured in the first half of the season AND has played in less than 20% of the games.

It sounds like redshirting can have a lot of positives academically ( the primary reason for college ). The risk of injury is always there. My own son (08) and many of his teamates have missed partial seasons due to injuries. I've always wondered if this is common everywhere or only in Texas where we play baseball Feb - November? Does a non-medical redshirt player participate in all training and Fall workouts plus regular season practices? How do they stay sharp?

Redshirting will also give your son a full year to adjust to college life. He'll still have to go to all the practices and all the home games, but he won't travel and it will give him a full year to work on his GPA.

Most freshman won't play all that much anyway, so if he knows going in he's going to redshirt, it's not a bad deal. it would be alot worse for him to go to a school and only throw 10 or 12 innings and waste a year of eligibility.

My son redshirted his frosh year at a major D-1 program

For him it was all positive--
he got 30 plus credits out of the way
he worked out regularly with the team
even made a few trips on his own with them
started the remaining 4 years


Personally I am a believer in a 5 year plan with freshman sitting the first year

This is interesting, I was just talking to a coach today about this subject. At the holidays we had a number of young me (all Freshman) at our house eating all of our food. In between bites they were talking about baseball. Most of them wanted to red shirt this year because they were two or three deep at their position behind a strong Junior and Senior class. As I listened I was pleased that my son was not in that position. He found out before the break that he was one of 2 starting catchers, would catch a minimum of every other game and he made the traveling team. The other catcher was a senior who had red shirted his first year. As I dropped my son off I met the other catcher who is 22 vs. my son at 18 and he resembles a small stocky tree. While he is 5"11, 210 lbs of solid muscle my son is 6'1, 195 and is still filling out. I can understand now the benifits of sitting out that freshman year.