GatorGrad
06-02-2007, 04:03 PM
NCAA President Myles Brand is apparently OK with allowing college football players to play for 5 years, instead of the usual 4...if they did away with redshirting. So instead of the typical "5 years to play 4 seasons," it would now be "5 years to play 5 seasons." The thinking is that most athletes take between 4 and 5 years to graduate. So instead of worrying about medial redshirts, and coaches worrying about who to redshirt as a freshman, they would just allow the kids to play from day one no matter what until their 5th year. It could also help graduation rates.
I'm not sure what to think of this. I'm so used to the 4-year cycle and the terms FR, SO, JR, and SR. What would they even call the 5th season? I think it would help with parity as the top schools would still probably lose their top players after only three seasons to the NFL, while the middle of the road to lesser D1 schools will likely be able to develop more chemistry and field more experienced teams over time as they have less players leaving early and staying for all five seasons. You could see lesser programs fielding teams dominated by 4th and 5th year players, while the big time programs field teams dominated by 2nd and 3rd year players as their top players will never make it to years 4 or 5. That could make a huge difference IMO. You could see more Wake Forest type of scenarios occur.
Thoughts?
I'm not sure what to think of this. I'm so used to the 4-year cycle and the terms FR, SO, JR, and SR. What would they even call the 5th season? I think it would help with parity as the top schools would still probably lose their top players after only three seasons to the NFL, while the middle of the road to lesser D1 schools will likely be able to develop more chemistry and field more experienced teams over time as they have less players leaving early and staying for all five seasons. You could see lesser programs fielding teams dominated by 4th and 5th year players, while the big time programs field teams dominated by 2nd and 3rd year players as their top players will never make it to years 4 or 5. That could make a huge difference IMO. You could see more Wake Forest type of scenarios occur.
Thoughts?