Expert: Vic Winnek - 10/28/2007

Question
What is the definition of a sports gray shirt?

Answer
Steve
Thank you for your question.

Your question is slightly outside my area of expertise and is not addressed in the NCAA materials. Grayshirt is another new term by the media and is applied to the prospect that signs a letter of intent in February, but doesn't report in the fall with his teammates. He delays entry to college until midyear  The reference materials I have: refer to the "Gray Shirt athlete" enrolling in the school following the gray shirt season- but I suspect there may be cases where an athlete can begin his studies at the school - since the goal of the student athlete is to get an education and graduate on time.   

What the Different Colors Mean:
I get a lot of questions regarding the meaning of different colored “shirts”, as in red shirt, green shirt, and gray shirt. These terms apply to recruiting and player development strategy and have become a common part of the vernacular as recruiting gets more and more publicity.

Grayshirt is another new term and is applied to the prospect that signs a letter of intent in February, but doesn't report in the fall with his teammates. He delays entry to college until midyear, i.e. January. That NCAA five-year clock doesn't start ticking until the player enrolls as a full time student, so gray-shirting is really a delayed version of red-shirting. For Example, Texas Tech, signed 34 players in February 2006, but NCAA rules prevent them from enrolling more than 25 to start the fall. Some of those nine other players gray-shirted during the 2006 fall season. They cannot enroll in college as full time students, can’t receive their scholarship, nor practice. It is like getting an extra year of practice, because most of these players don’t see the game field until two years later and they have the advantage of going through an extra spring practice.

Red shirt, the most well known "shirt" color has been around for a long time. Red means “stop” as in “stop from playing”. The NCAA allows a player five years to complete four seasons of eligibility. That fifth year, usually the freshman year, is when the player practices but doesn't play in any games. That is called the Red shirt year. Players still receive their scholarship, still practice, still do everything the other players do—they just don’t play in the games.

The purpose is to preserve a year’s eligibility when the player probably wouldn't see much playing time. Many freshmen completing two-a-days at the beginning of a season are in limbo as to their status. Obviously most want to play (probably were promised that in recruiting), but have to be able to answer the question on whether they would play more four years from now.

There is also the provision for a “medical red shirt” in that if a player is injured early in the season and won't get back on the field soon, he is red-shirted for medical reasons, thus preserving that year of eligibility.

Green shirt is a relatively new term and is applied to that high school senior that forgoes his spring semester in high school to enroll in college in January. Green means “go” as in “go early”. More and more you see high school seniors pass up their final semester to get to campus early.   If a player (or the college staff), thinks he may be able to play right away as a freshman, it provides him with the opportunity to go through spring practice, learn the system, and get acclimated to being on campus. Obviously that takes some prior planning on the part of the player and his parents to insure he can graduate from high school early.

The bottom line for a prospect is to know what the options are, because it clearly affects which schools will be interested in recruiting a player. Those schools that are "mixed out" on scholarships and are going to be forced to sign a small class are most interested in players who are willing to gray shirt. Those needing squad numbers will be more interested in players who can go green, because they can count you against their current scholarship limits.


Vic Winnek
NCAA Football Official