14.2 SEASONS OF COMPETITION: FIVE-YEAR RULE

A student-athlete shall not engage in more than four seasons of intercollegiate competition in any one sport. An institution shall not permit a student-athlete to represent it in intercollegiate competition unless the individual completes all of his or her seasons of participation in all sports within the time periods specified below:

A student-athlete shall complete his or her seasons of participation within five calendar years from the beginning of the semester or quarter in which the student-athlete first registered for a minimum full-time program of studies in a collegiate institution, with time spent in the armed services, on official church missions or with recognized foreign aid services of the U.S. government being excepted. For foreign students, service in the armed forces or on an official church mission of the student's home country is considered equivalent to such service in the United States.

Although NCAA legislation contains no specific reference to "redshirting", it may be the practice of an institution to withdraw a student-athlete from all competition (both varsity and sub-varsity) in a sport during a season.

A student-athlete could be "redshirted" at any point during his or her period of eligibility. Any participation during a season in an intercollegiate sport, regardless of time, shall be considered as a season of competition in that sport if the student-athlete competes in a contest against outside competition (this includes scrimmages, exhibitions or "play days"). Practicing with an institution's intercollegiate team and being on the team's bench in uniform during games does not count as a season of competition, provided the student-athlete does not participate in any portion of the intercollegiate event.

Effective August 1, 2005 - A student-athlete in his/her initial year of collegiate enrollment may compete in informal practice scrimmage of exhibition contests without a loss of season of competition.

A student-athlete may be granted an additional year of competition by the conference or the institution for reasons of "hardship," which is defined as that incapacity resulting from injury or illness under the following conditions: (a) It occurs in one of the four seasons of intercollegiate competition at any four-year collegiate institution for members of Division I, or at any two-year or four-year collegiate institution for members of Division II or Division III, and (b) the injury or illness occurs when the student-athlete has not participated in more than 30 percent of the institution's completed events in his or her sport, whichever is greater, provided the injury or illness occurred in the first half of the season and resulted in incapacity to compete for the remainder of the season. Any contest (including a scrimmage) with outside competition is countable under this legislation.