Banned Words

[Bob Fitzke]

I think you are confused about the meaning of red shirt. It is almost
universally applied to students who are held out of varsity competition in
their freshman year. It is an option. Transfer students are mandated to sit out
a year (though I understand that application of this rule is not universal, and
doesn't apply, for example, when transferring between schools at lower
competitive level). I think it is an NCAA rule. Redshirting is simply a coach
and athlete decision. It can be used, e.g., (as others have written) for kids
that are injured, kids that need more physical maturity to compete, when there
are too many kids for a given position, or if the academics are overly
burdensome.

Bob

Ronald Kephart wrote:

> >I don't think that injury is a prerequisite to being redshirted. Sometimes
> >players are red shirted 'cause there's just too many good ones.
>
> I think that would just get you not on the team.  The major reason
> for being redshirted is that if you transfer from one school to
> another you can't compete for your new school for one year. In my
> case, I transferred to William and Mary as a cross-country runner.  I
> ran in the races my first year, but I didn't count in the scoring and
> I couldn't wear the team uniform, which I think is what the "red
> shirt" refers to.
>
> Ronald Kephart
> English & "Foreign" Languages
> University of North Florida