Now that college sports have kicked off for the new year, it’s time to take a look at some of the abbreviations you might see on a college roster when it comes to determining the grade, or year, a student-athlete is competing.  Amazing as it is to think, there’s more than just the four traditional terms of Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior.

In recent years, more and more schools have dropped Freshman in favor of First Year.  You also have Red Shirt athletes, Graduate Students, and Doctoral Students who may be competing for their schools.  Since NCAA has limitations on how many years an athlete may participate, through injuries and education, it’s possible a grad student or doctoral student could be playing.  Let’s take a look at the list of abbreviations below:

FR – Freshman
FY – First Year
SO – Sophomore
JR – Junior
SR – SeniorRS – Red Shirt ______
GS – Graduate Student
DS – Doctoral Student

A Red Shirt athlete is someone who had to sit out a season due to injury or other liability, without losing a year of eligibility to play for the school.  The “RS” designation is combined with any of the labels above to indicate their status, such as “A red-shirt sophomore”.  Student athletes who compete under red shirt status attend classes at their institution, practice with an athletic program and may dress for play.  The student-athlete may not participate in game play.