What Is a Redshirt Senior

Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete’s participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Using this mechanism, a student athlete has at most five academic years to use the four years of eligibility, thus becoming what is termed a fifth-year senior.

How many years can you redshirt?

However, a student athlete may be offered the opportunity to redshirt for up to two years, which allows the athlete to spread those four years of eligibility over five, or sometimes six years.

Is redshirt a bad thing?

While there are many benefits to Redshirting and it should generally be considered as a good and healthy thing; it doesn’t come without some challenges.