Can I take a crack at this one?  1994-95 NCAA Manual (pg. 139-140) section
14.2.5 Hardship Waiver speaks to three conditions for granting an additional
year of eligibility.
 
1.  injury must occur in one of the four seasons of competition,
2.  must occur prior to the first half of the season and result in
    incapacity to play for remainder of season,
3.  S-A must not have participated in over 20% of completed events.
 
There are numerous qualifiers to the above depending on division and other
factors.
 
Tony, playing the 18th game seems a dumb thing to do, as it appears to
violate criteria #2.
 
Mike Breitner ([log in to unmask])
Northern State University, Aberdeen, SD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REPLY FROM: Breitner, Mike
 
Date:         Tue, 3 Jan 1995 17:32:46 -0600
From: "Anthony J. Frolik" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Eligibility/Redshirt question
 
O.K., one of you eligibility experts can help me out here, let's say, oh,
for example, a true sophomore starts the season for his school.  In the
third game, he goes down with a broken ankle.  He plays in the team's
18th game.  Can he still get a 'medical' redshirt (Or whatever you call
it)?  I don't think it matters, but the 18th game was a non-conference
game, but against a Div-I opponent.
 
Thanks in advance,
Tony