Many fans of collegiate sports know what a redshirt is, but many may not understand the complicated rules and regulations regarding it.The term redshirt is used for a student-athlete who does not participate in competition in their sport for an entire academic year, thus saving a year of eligibility. Student-athletes have five years to complete four years of NCAA eligibility.A player may redshirt at any time during his or her athletic career. For instance, if  player wanted to redshirt before his or her sophomore, junior or senior season, he or she could.”Any competition, regardless of time, during a season counts as one of your seasons of competition in that sport. It does not matter how long you were involved in a particular competition (for example, one play in a football game); you will be charged with one season of competition,” according to NCAA rules.A common misconception is that a player can still redshirt as long as they play less than 10 percent of the schedule. But this is not the case.Bo Kerin, LSU associate athletic director of compliance, said a player cannot even play a single down and still redshirt.This means LSU true freshman quarterback Jordan Jefferson, who played late against North Texas, cannot redshirt this season unless a medical situation arises.While they cannot play in games, redshirted players still receive their scholarships and practice with the team.Redshirt sophomore linebacker Kelvin Sheppard said redshirting his freshman year was the best thing he could have done.”A redshirt year is probably the best thing you can do, especially if there is depth at your position,” Sheppard said. “It gives you time to hit the weight room every day because you’re not going in every Saturday having to compete.” Although Sheppard said redshirting his freshman season was his best option, he was discouraged at the time.”The coaches looked at it like there was no reason to waste one of my years,” Sheppard said. “Coach Peveto, who’s a great guy, told me it was the best thing for me. Being 18, I didn’t understand.”MEDICAL-REDSHIRTAthletes may also attain a medical hardship waiver, more commonly known as a medical-redshirt, if they are injured during the first half of the season and are incapable of playing the remainder of the season.NCAA rules state a player can obtain a medical redshirt if “the injury or illness occurs when the student-athlete has not participated in 30 percent of the institution’s scheduled or completed contests or dates of competition in his or her sport.”LSU defensive end Kirston Pittman is unique in that he has had a redshirt season and a medical-redshirt season. The sixth-year senior redshirted in 2005 because of a foot injury and received a medical redshirt in 2006 after tearing his Achilles tendon.”I was told the training staff would have to file with the NCAA, it’s a rare process,” Pittman said. “A lot of people don’t get a sixth year.”Pittman said his two years on the side helped him in several ways although it was hard for him.”It benefited me a lot on and off the field,” Pittman said. “It made me think about the game more. When I came back I was more focused, more hungry. I watched film a lot, and it really gave me an edge in the game.”To obtain a medical-redshirt there must be medical documentation from the time of the injury, according to Gil Grimes, assistant commissioner of legislative services for the Southeastern Conference.”The conference approves [a medical-redshirt] based on the NCAA criteria; it’s a pretty hard and fast rule,” Grimes said.GRAYSHIRTThe term “grayshirt” is a relatively new term in collegiate sports. A grayshirt is actually not an NCAA term but instead arose from the recruiting process.A grayshirt is a student-athlete who doesn’t enroll in college until the spring semester after high school. Students who grayshirt sometimes use the fall semester to take classes part time without scholarship although they must be a part time student with fewer than 12 hours.A common cause for grayshirting is when a team has no scholarships left to give for that year’s recruiting class. In that case, a player is grayshirted and counted as a member of the following year’s class with a scholarship. Although they may attend school part time, while a player is grayshirted, he or she is ineligible to play.—-Contact Tyler Harvey at [email protected]