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Can some please explain gray shirt in college football?

southerncalirish

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Dec 18, 2006
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i know it means a freshman postpones his enrollment until the winter quarter, but what do the athletes do in the fall. Do they go to class, do they stay home? Does it mean if a player on the current roster gets injured can they be added to the roster?

Thank you
 
i know it means a freshman postpones his enrollment until the winter quarter, but what do the athletes do in the fall. Do they go to class, do they stay home? Does it mean if a player on the current roster gets injured can they be added to the roster?

Thank you

https://www.sbnation.com/college-fo...a-football-grayshirt-blueshirt-redshirt-rules

"Athletes who grayshirt are allowed to enroll as students. They go to class for the first semester as part-time students, either at the school or at a junior college, without starting their eligibility clocks. Then they begin as full-time students on scholarship.

Grayshirts have commonly been used by programs that oversign, which means not having enough roster spots for all of their commits. Sometimes, coaches are up front about grayshirting from the beginning. However, other times, they will force grayshirts on athletes at the last minute, leaving them unable to find schools that will allow them to play immediately.

Last year, Louisville coach Bobby Petrino was criticized for giving one player a surprise grayshirt right before National Signing Day, after the player had been committed as a non-grayshirt for a year. Many other programs have done the same thing.

Sometimes, grayshirts can be revoked and turned into regular offers due to unforeseen roster changes. If there is a surprise transfer during the offseason, a player who planned on grayshirting could be added to the roster as a normal signee."
 
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i know it means a freshman postpones his enrollment until the winter quarter, but what do the athletes do in the fall. Do they go to class, do they stay home? Does it mean if a player on the current roster gets injured can they be added to the roster?

Thank you

it is Red Shirting w/o classes
 
it is Red Shirting w/o classes
Nothing wrong with it as long as the school is honest and upfront with kids and parents about the plan. When it goes across the line is when the coach tells the kid he needs to greyshirt a day of two before signing day, which has happened in the past. The kid then has almost no other option available to him. That's big time low.
 
https://www.sbnation.com/college-fo...a-football-grayshirt-blueshirt-redshirt-rules

"Athletes who grayshirt are allowed to enroll as students. They go to class for the first semester as part-time students, either at the school or at a junior college, without starting their eligibility clocks. Then they begin as full-time students on scholarship.

Grayshirts have commonly been used by programs that oversign, which means not having enough roster spots for all of their commits. Sometimes, coaches are up front about grayshirting from the beginning. However, other times, they will force grayshirts on athletes at the last minute, leaving them unable to find schools that will allow them to play immediately.

Last year, Louisville coach Bobby Petrino was criticized for giving one player a surprise grayshirt right before National Signing Day, after the player had been committed as a non-grayshirt for a year. Many other programs have done the same thing.

Sometimes, grayshirts can be revoked and turned into regular offers due to unforeseen roster changes. If there is a surprise transfer during the offseason, a player who planned on grayshirting could be added to the roster as a normal signee."

So they can go to class but have to pay the tuition. My understanding is Saban does quite a bit of this, shuffling his injured players from schollies to students and students to schollies?
 
So they can go to class but have to pay the tuition. My understanding is Saban does quite a bit of this, shuffling his injured players from schollies to students and students to schollies?

If they are “medical” they can still go to school for free, but can’t play football again.
A few schools will tell players they are “injured” if the font want to leave the school. Those kids then are still on scholarship (not counted agsinst the 85) & they can stay at that school for free.
 
So they can go to class but have to pay the tuition. My understanding is Saban does quite a bit of this, shuffling his injured players from schollies to students and students to schollies?

Saban may have stopped or really slowed it down. I haven't read any articles on that in years.
 
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