<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (September 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (September 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation to lengthen his or her period of eligibility . Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, like the four years of academic classes typically required to earn a bachelor's degree at an American college or university . However, in a redshirt year, student athletes may attend classes at the college or university, practice with an athletic team, and "suit up" (wear a team uniform) for play--but they may not compete in games . Using this mechanism, a student athlete has at most five academic years to use the four years of eligibility, thus becoming what is termed a fifth - year senior . </P> <P> The origin of the term redshirt was likely from Warren Alfson of the University of Nebraska who, in 1937, asked to practice but not play and wore a Nebraska red shirt without a number . The term is used as a verb, noun, and adjective . For example, a coach may choose to redshirt a player who is then referred to as a redshirt, and a redshirt freshman refers to an athlete in the first year of participation, after a redshirt non-participatory year . </P>

What does it mean to be a redshirt athlete
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