kmoose,
If they stick you in grad school and let you play another year, how is that not a Redshirt?
It's a fifth year no matter what degree program you call it. Well it's not a Redshirt if they don't give the guy a scholarship for graduate studies. But if they do, they it sure walks like duck and quacks like a duck. Are those grad school guys still on scholarship?
I'm not knocking it. I'm just calling a spade a spade.
SteveM
P.S. I know the value of the BA/BS itself. I'm just talking administratively, not level of academic effort or achievement.
It's a bit semantical, Steve, but here is the difference:
At most schools, you go through your freshman year without participating in whatever the cutoff is: the school petitions the NCAA (at the end of the season), and you are granted a fifth year of eligibility. You know, at the end of your freshman season, that you are guaranteed 4 years of eligibility. Even if you never graduate, you will be able to play that fifth year.
At ND, you go through your four years. If you did not participate in whatever the cutoff is, during one of those years, you can ask the school to petition for you. But here is the biggest difference between ND and most schools: in your sophomore year(academically), you could not slack off of classes, because if you want that 5th year, you know that you have to have graduated in your 4th year. Now, just graduating is not enough. You also have to qualify, and be accepted to, a graduate program at ND. ND's graduate programs are pretty competitive, so earning a degree in Philosophy (no offense, Philosopy majors) with a 2.0 average is not likely to get you in.
It's a small distinction, and one that many haters will scoff at, but it is a big difference, when you look at the emphasis that it places on the student's education. Education comes first at ND. It's one of the reasons that many people love ND. ND has almost always stood as proof that "old fashioned" values (character and education) don't have to be a handicap, in the modern world.
I guess my point is.............it's not stupid of Weis to get some of these guys into games, even in garbage time, because it's not "automatic" that they will be granted a 5th year if they don't play, like at many other schools.