A rule change adopted for NCAA Division I football should provide more flexibility for coaches in coping with team injuries and the redshirt status of freshmen players.
Under the change approved by the NCAA Division I Council, athletes competing in Division I football may participate in as many as four games in a season without using a year of eligibility. In 2018, teams may play 11 regular-season contests.
Division I student-athletes are allowed five years to complete four years of athletic eligibility, but the newly adopted exception — which becomes effective for the 2018 football season — allows players in that sport to preserve a season of play if injuries or other factors limit them to four games or fewer.
That replaces the old rule under which a football player would have been considered to have used a year of eligibility by participating in a single play in any game of a season.
“This change promotes not only fairness for college athletes, but also their health and well-being,” council chair Blake James, athletics director at the University of Miami and a former AD at the University of Maine, said in announcing the change. “Redshirt football student-athletes are more likely to remain engaged with the team, and starters will be less likely to feel pressure to play through injuries.
“Coaches will appreciate the additional flexibility and ability to give younger players an opportunity to participate in limited competition.”
UMaine football coach Joe Harasymiak sees multiple benefits to the rule change, one involving how coaches can use their roster in the event of injuries.
Harasymiak cited the case of former Black Bears offensive lineman Jamil Demby, the recent sixth-round draft pick of the National Football League’s Los Angeles Rams. He was thrust into duty as a first-year athlete at UMaine in 2014 when the Black Bears became shorthanded along the offensive line during that season.
“Demby definitely could have benefitted from that redshirt type of year, but we had to play him and at that point the rule was once you step onto the field you’re done,” Harasymiak said. “The old way of thinking was that once you do it, they’re playing every game. There was no going back because you couldn’t get the year back.
“With the rule the way it is now, it would have been a situation where that year you potentially could have played him two, three or four games, let some guys come back from injury and then pull him and he could get his year back.”
The rule change also will enable coaches to allow freshmen to see some game action before determining whether a player should continue to play for the rest of the season or use the redshirt option.
“Now you could potentially look to play some guys in some games and kind of use it as a live, game-like evaluation while still having it in your back pocket that you don’t have to burn their (red)shirt for doing that,” Harasymiak said. “If he ends up taking off, you can make the decision to play him more or obviously if he’s not ready physically or mentally, you can pull back and just be able to redshirt him.”
According to the NCAA release, the Division I Student-Athlete Experience Committee will examine how a similar concept could be applied to other sports, including what number of games would be appropriate. In its review, the committee will consult with the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
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