Expert: Vic Winnek - 3/16/2007

Question
I would like to know if an athlete gray shirts in the fall if it is legal for the student to take part time classes at the school and live in the dorms on campus.  My son has been offered a gray shirt at Oregon State.  We would like him to live on campus.  The coaches there did not know the rules.  I would appreciate anything you can tell me.

Joni

Answer
Joni,

I am following up to your question and wondering if Mark Rountree (OSU Director of Compliance) was able to assist you.  This question stumped the two compliance officers I spoke to, they initially stated that since the school is Gray shirting your son and enrollment for you son is not scheduled until Spring he would not be able to enroll early and take classes without a petitioning the NCAA if he is to preserve his eligibility.

They thought the likelihood of having such a petition granted is good since his purpose is to attend classes and establish himself in campus life before actively participating in the football program.  Such a petition should be endorsed by the university.  


Joni,
Thank you for your question.

I don't mean to pass the buck but your question is slightly outside my area of expertise and is not exactly addressed in the NCAA materials I have. 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.   Your question is valid and you need to contact Oregon Sate's Director of Compliance [Mark Rountree] directly for a ruling as this could greatly affect your son and the school if not complied with correctly.

Also I recommend you contact the PAC-10 Conference Compliance office (Associate Commissioner, Compliance:  Mike Matthews  1350 Treat Blvd., Suite 500, Walnut Creek, CA 94597-8853 Phone: (925) 932-4411 Fax: (925) 932-4601) you may also want to contact NCAA directly as well or go to their web site www.NCAA.org.

First I recommend you contact one of the following at Oregon State:

Mark Rountree, Director of Compliance for OSU, (541) 737-7495 – mark.rountree@oregonstate.edu
 
Anna Lyst,Assistant Annamarie.lyst@oregonstate.edu

Jen Fazioli, Assistant  jen.fazioli@oregonstate.edu

LJ “Kelvin” Koong, Faculty Athletic Representative – l.j.koong@oregonstate.edu

I hope this helps.  I wish I could give you a simple answer but this question requires a specific answer from the University and Conference/NCAA.

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.