{"id":2575,"date":"2014-08-20T14:27:09","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T19:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gridironstuds.com\/blog\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2014-08-20T14:27:09","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T19:27:09","slug":"recruiting-school-grey-shirt-whats-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/recruiting-school-grey-shirt-whats-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Recruiting School: Grey Shirt, what’s that?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Chad Wilson – Editor in Chief – GridironStuds.com Blog<\/strong>
\nFollow on Twitter: \u00a0\u00a0@Gridironstuds<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"We’ve all heard the term red shirt in the college football lingo. \u00a0It’s basically when a college program decides that a freshman will have little impact on the playing field or court in the upcoming season and would benefit from not using a year of live action eligibility. \u00a0The coach of the team decides to “red shirt” the individual thus giving them a year to grow, learn or even rehab an injury. \u00a0All individuals competing in interscholastic sports have five years to complete four years of live action. \u00a0So a redshirt is afforded to all parties competing.<\/p>\n

A lesser known term out there is called a grey shirt. \u00a0This has come into play more often over the last half decade. \u00a0The practice has stemmed from another more common practice now of over signing by college programs. \u00a0The practice has also been more commonly used by college football programs. \u00a0Basically, \u00a0a team will sign more than their allotted amount for a giving signing period. \u00a0In an effort to avoid the penalties\u00a0of doing so, \u00a0the team will defer the enrollment of one or more players in their February signing class till the Spring semester after the Fall semester the athlete would have normally entered in.<\/p>\n

So, Joe Smith, \u00a0for example, signed a letter of intent in February 2014. \u00a0He would normally enter and enroll in school in August 2014. \u00a0However, \u00a0instead of enrolling in August, \u00a0he will now enroll in January of 2015. \u00a0That is what is known as a grey shirt. \u00a0What this allows the team to do is count the player against the following signing period. \u00a0Each Division I school is allowed to sign 25 players each signing period. \u00a0By using the grey shirt, \u00a0a school can sign 27, \u00a0for example and grey shirt two players and have them count towards the next recruiting cycle.<\/p>\n

What does the grey shirt mean to the individual athlete? \u00a0Normally, \u00a0the school will direct the athlete to a junior college where they can take college courses under one important stipulation: \u00a0the athlete can not take 12 credits or more. \u00a0Taking 12 credits or more of college courses will essentially start that athlete’s “eligibility\u00a0clock”. \u00a0This means that, although the player is not on campus, practicing or playing with the team, \u00a0their eligibility to play would have started and the Fall semester will count.<\/p>\n

What the players will normally do is go to the junior college, \u00a0take less than 12 credits (for which they are responsible to pay for), \u00a0freeze their eligibility and then start their eligibility clock in the spring semester. \u00a0The advantage in doing this is giving the player an additional spring semester to use during their eligibility. \u00a0So, rather than entering school during the semester in which competition will begin, \u00a0you enter the school in a spring semester giving you more preparation time before your first semester of competitive play. \u00a0This is sorta of the opposite of early enrollment.<\/p>\n

Who typically gets offered a grey shirt? \u00a0A grey shirt is typically offered to a player that coaches feel are not a strong candidate to contribute to the team right away. \u00a0This individual, \u00a0in the eyes of the coaching staff is more likely to redshirt in that Fall Semester than get actual meaningful snaps. \u00a0Rather than starting eligibility now, \u00a0the athlete can start in the spring and get more practice time under their belt.<\/p>\n

Many athletes view the grey shirt as a negative because it’s a shot to their ego. \u00a0They feel it implies that the player is not good enough to compete right away and thus the school wants you to wait and come in later. It’s a quasi form of rejection. \u00a0However, \u00a0it should not necessarily be looked at that way. \u00a0First, \u00a0the school offered you a scholarship and accepted your letter of intent so they want you. \u00a0Second, they are being realistic iabout\u00a0your immediate role\u00a0on the team. \u00a0Perhaps they are really excited about your potential and are looking for the best way to maximize it. \u00a0Third, you would benefit from the extra semester of taking college courses and adapting to teaching the college way. \u00a0Finally, you\u00a0also benefit from being able to practice in the spring, \u00a0learn the schemes and build your body up before actual competition takes place. \u00a0Of course, \u00a0explaining this to your boys and withstanding the jabs on social media may prove too\u00a0tough for most adolescents to handle. \u00a0If you are strong minded enough and can see the plan for your future, \u00a0a grey shirt could work strongly in your favor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Chad Wilson – Editor in Chief – GridironStuds.com Blog Follow on Twitter: \u00a0\u00a0@Gridironstuds We’ve all heard the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[767],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recruiting-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}