How can a college athlete in the United States have seven years in a collegiate sport?

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Watching LSU Florida State game and overheard one of the commentators say that one of the players had seven years in college football? I don’t know that much about college sports, but even if you take into account red shirting and the extra COVID time, seven years doesn’t seem like it should be possible.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Here is how:

-Everyone gets at least 4 years of eligibility no matter what.

-Every athlete gets the option of one redshirt. When you get a redshirt, you can only play in a small amount of games, in return you get a 5th year.

-Due to the 2020 Pandemic either shortening or outright canceling seasons, NCAA gave every college athlete who was on a roster in 2020 an extra year. If you played games in 2020, you essentially got a free 6th year.

-If you get a season ending injury that causes you to miss a certain percentage of the season, you could get a medical redshirt, which gives you a makeup year of eligibility. So if you had an elgible injury with proper medical documentation, you could qualify for a 7th year.

In theory, you could get several medical redshirts if you keep getting hurt. There was an Oregon tight end who could have played **NINE!** Years if he wanted to.

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