SEC coaches react to college players filing lawsuit to end redshirt seasons
A group of current and former athletes has filed a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA that could pave the way for players to play each season of their five-season eligibility window and would eliminate the practice of redshirting players.
The case would be a slam dunk in favor of the plaintiffs if Georgia coach Kirby Smart and other SEC football coaches were on the jury.
The suit, which included Vanderbilt players Issa Ouattara and Langston Patterson, among others, claims the NCAA’s redshirt rule is in violation of antitrust laws.
“We are not challenging the NCAA’s rule limiting players to five years of eligibility to play college sports or the concept of a defined eligibility period generally,” the athletes’ co-lead counsel Ryan Downton said in the complaint, per CBS Sports. “But the NCAA has no basis to prohibit a player who is working just as hard as all of his teammates in practice, in the weight room, and in the classroom, from stepping on the field (or court) to compete against another school in one of those seasons.
“Five years to practice, five years to graduate, five years to play. The NCAA Division II Management (Council) recommended allowing Division II players to compete in all five years earlier this summer. It is time for NCAA Division I to follow suit.”
Smart said he “supports the five-year plan” for a couple of reasons.
“I think it cleans it up for a lot of people,” Smart said, referring to the confusing stipulations of what qualifies as a redshirt season from one sport to the next.
Football-wise, Smart said, it erases any doubts of who is available to play from week to week.
“Everybody’s dealing with depth issues,” Smart said. “And when you add the (current) redshirt rule in, it creates this doubt of whether or not you have access to that player for the year. So, five for five, I support.”
Brent Venables, in his fourth season as Oklahoma’s head coach and 33rd in collegiate coaching, also supports players being able to play all five seasons of their eligibility.
“I think they should be able to play five, I thought that was going to be on the docket to vote for, and I’m hopeful that it happens sooner rather than later,” Venables said. “I just think it’s the right thing to do, and you don’t have to worry about how many games you’re playing a guy.”
Venables pointed out that, in the aftermath of the House v. NCAA case settled in June, teams will be featuring smaller roster limits (105 for football), so having all the players available would be beneficial.
“With the smaller rosters, I think it would really help us throughout the course of the season (as there are) injuries, opt-outs and things of that nature,” Venables said. “You don’t have to worry about burning a guy’s (redshirt) year, so just open it up and give them five.”
There would be some questions about how the fifth season of playing eligibility would affect whether the NCAA continues to dole out waivers for injuries, military service or church missions, as well as other special exemptions.
LSU coach Brian Kelly said he believes there should be some academic progress tied to the eligibility rules, as well.
“I don’t have a problem with it, (but) are you going to use your five years up through your academic institution in terms of getting your degree?” Kelly said.
“We need to (say), ‘If we’re going to give you five years, and we’re going to give you transfer opportunities, at some point, we’ve got to start to look at the academic piece here.’ So that would be my only caveat.”
Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea, like Kelly, said he believes progress toward graduation should be a part of extended eligibility.
“As far as eligibility goes, I’d love to see graduation as a part of that process,” Lea said. “I think we have to pull this back to be focused on the school aspect of the experience, too. ...
“So, if we’re going to make adjustments to eligibility, how do we introduce a mechanism that favors guys that have graduated?”
Lea’s quarterback, Diego Pavia, successfully pursued temporary and preliminary relief from the courts to gain another season of eligibility through a lawsuit filed against the NCAA in November.
To Lea’s point, Pavia completed his undergraduate degree at New Mexico.
The more recent lawsuit, related to the standing redshirt rule, was filed by Pavia’s teammates and others, was filed in the U.S. District Court of Tennessee in Nashville.
About the Author
Mike is in his eighth season covering SEC and Georgia athletics for AJC-DawgNation and has 30 years of collegiate sports multimedia experience, 25 of them in the SEC including beat writer stops at Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee and now Georgia. Mike was named the National FWAA Beat Writer of the Year in January, 2018.
