Neither am I saying it isn't something we shouldn't use, for the right type of player. However, our fanbase is enamoured with redshirting, both on the football and hoops side, probably because historically, we've only been able to recruit kids that needed 5th years to grow into players that could compete on the court with others. That's no longer the case today, and we should be thankful. But, some fans seem to think we should redshirt everyone because they'll naturally be better as 5th year seniors vs. true frosh, whereas redshirts should be given only to those players who are not ready to see the field/court and who otherwise wouldn't have opportunities to contribute due to depth.
Here's what redshirt years do also:
1. Prevent you from fielding your best team. If a kid can contribute, no way you should redshirt him
2. slow down a kid's development (for those who ARE ready) to allow him contribute faster, because he didn't get game time. I think Pardon would have been even better than he was for the B1G season, had he not sat out during the non-conf
3. wastes a season if a kid gets hurt. Imagine if we had redshirted Vic Law.
4. here's the worst thing - ties up a scholarship for an extra year on a kid who most likely is not worth that 5th year relative to kids you could be bringing in. I like Sanjay and I'm not saying that he's not a contributor, but imagine if he wasn't redshirted (I realize he was injured, but I'm just saying) and we could bring in another kid THIS YEAR. Sure, Sanjay is a contributor, but I'd be willing to gamble that we could get a kid that is going to be better for this program if that scholarship were free. The thing is exactly what you said in the first sentence - very few players become superstars. We should be cycling our scholarships faster to give us more swings at the plate to possibly land that ever evasive superstar. This is exactly why the football powers are always loaded with talent - the SEC especially (and frankly, Harbaugh). They are masters at cycling through scholarships faster than everyone else, though they do it in very shady ways that exploit a kid, throwing them to the curb if they don't pan out, anything to get that scholie free for someone else (we obviously don't do that, or Vassar wouldn't be here still). Even more important in basketball to cycle through where you only have 13 scholarships. That's why no one ever tries to prevent a kid from staying his 5th year (see all the 5th year transfers in hoops). That 5th year isn't that great for most programs, because most programs would rather give that scholarship to someone else. Just like a proven veteran, short of a superstar, in the League is going to always go for less than what you would think in draft picks. Give up a 1st round pick for a guy? Chances are your 1st round pick isn't going to be as certain an outcome as your vet, but you take the 1st round pick, cuz you might just end up with Steph Curry or someone like that. Same with our scholarship that that 5th year guy is holding down.
