Notre Dame football rival coach cooks up winning redshirt proposition

There’s no love lost between Notre Dame football fand and USC on most days. And when the Trojans head coach is none other than Lincoln Riley, it’s even easier to find reasons to belittle and laugh at the old rival.

However, a new idea that Riley floated around this week bears listening to. He has a plan to do away with all the exceptions and waivers for years of eligibility that would make everything easier in college football in this area.

The Notre Dame football rival believes that it might be better overall if the eligibility was just about five years and not have a bunch of rules outside of that. Riley’s plan actually makes quite a bit of sense.

“I think guys should have five years,” Riley told reporters. “Do whatever you want, play as much as you want or as little as you want, and the only way you get an extra one is if you have two season-ending injuries and miss the whole season.”

Notre Dame football rival comes up with interesting eligibility rule

Riley went on to make sure his point was clear. “I think it should be that plain and simple and be done, and then nobody’ll have to worry about this other crap about how many games you’ve played and all that. I understand why it’s there, but I still think it’s a little bit behind the times.”

For right now, a Notre Dame football player has four years of eligibility but can technically have five in college if they redshirt one of the seasons. A few years, back, the NCAA expanded how many games a player could appear in and still keep their redshirt. 

Players can now play in four games in the regular season and still retain a year of eligibility. This fall, there’s been quite a few stories of players redshirting and planning to transfer after the season. Notre Dame football saw that happen with defensive back Jaden Mickey and USC had it happen with defensive lineman Bear Alexander.