Oklahoma HC Brent Venables on NCAA Redshirt Rule: ‘They Should be Able to Play Five’

When it comes to the NCAA’s redshirt rule, Oklahoma coach Brent Venables is a proponent of change.

Vanderbilt linebacker Langston Patterson and defensive lineman Issa Ouattara are two of 10 current and former student-athletes suing the NCAA over its redshirt policy.

As it currently stands, college football players are allowed to appear in no more than four regular-season games to use a redshirt year. In most other sports, players are limited to a percentage of a team's total games and still be allowed to use a redshirt.

Venables, the Sooners’ coach since 2022, believes it’s time to allow athletes to compete in all five years.

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“It just seems like the right thing to do,” Venables said Wednesday on the SEC’s weekly teleconference. “I thought that was going to be on the docket to vote for. I’m hopeful that it happens sooner rather than later.”

The lawsuit from Patterson, Ouattara and the other eight athletes was filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Nashville.

Ryan Downton, the athletes’ co-lead counsel, said in the complaint, "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 term "redshirt" applies to a player who sits out for a season but still retains their eligibility to play for four seasons. Under longstanding rules, college athletes have five years to complete their four seasons of eligibility. Previously, the redshirt rule meant a player could not compete in a game at all -- even one snap. If he did, that was counted as a full season of eligibility. That rule was changed in 2018 to allow football players up to four games in a season and still maintain their redshirt, and that was amended last year to exclude postseason games from counting against the four-game limit.

The current policy gives college football teams thin ice to skate on. Amid injuries and other unforeseen hurdles, such as the NCAA Transfer Portal, coaches have to carefully construct their lineups to avoid burning their players’ redshirts and costing them a year of NCAA eligibility.

“You wouldn’t have to worry about how many games guys are playing,” Venables said. “I think it would help us throughout the course of the season. … injuries, opt-outs, things of that nature. Not having to worry about guys burning a year.”

Moving to five seasons of eligibility has been on the table for discussion for years. In July, the NCAA’s Division II Management Council supported a proposal for five seasons of competition, which would allow student-athletes to compete in five seasons over the course of 10 semesters or 15 quarters of full-time enrollment.

“It’s time for NCAA Division I to follow suit,” Downton said in the complaint.

The case will likely be argued for an extended period of time, but Venables believes it would better college athletics for his program and others.

“Just open it up and give them five,” Venables said.