Jim Harbaugh likes new NCAA football redshirt rule

Jim Harbaugh likesA the new football redshirt ruleA adopted by the NCAA earlier this summer.

Speaking this week on hisA "Attack Each Day" podcast, the Michigan football coach called the new policy allowing student-athletes to play in up to four games without burning their redshirt "a good rule."

"Really player-friendly, student-athlete friendly," Harbaugh said. "The rule had been that you could play in four games and still be redshirted, but they needed to have been in four of the first six games.

"And then there had to have been (as) to why you didn't play in the remaining games."

Harbaugh, of course, was referring to the NCAA's medical redshirt rule, which limited football players to four games or 30 percent of games in a season to qualify. Wide receiver Tarik Black obtained a medical redshirt in 2017 after suffering a broken foot in his fourth game.

Right now, football scholarship athletes have five academic years to satisfy their four years of eligibility, though they can petition the NCAA for medical hardship.