The way I understand the medical hardship, you have to lose significant parts of TWO seasons before a hardship year is granted. I don't see how Ashnault could qualify.
Well he did lose significant parts of two seasons, but that is besides the point as to medical hardship. I did some reading, and hope I can add some clarity.
A "Medical Hardship Waiver" is a one season thing. To qualify for a medical hardship waiver, you need to (1) compete in no more than 30% of the competition dates; (2) suffer a season ending injury prior to the start of the second half of the season. If you meet both criteria, the year will not count against your 4 competition years. Without the Medical Hardship Waiver, if you compete in a single event, you lose the entire competition year. This is why football players who play in one game and are not injured have "their redshirt burned." In other words, they lose 1 of their 4 competition years.
If Ash doesn't compete at all this year, he will obviously qualify for a medical hardship waiver, but he will not need one. If you compete in zero events, you do not lose a competition year. The problem Ash has is the "5 year clock." The 5 year clock says you have to use your 4 competition years within 5 years of enrolling. Each athlete only has 5 years in which they are "eligible to compete."
All students who redshirt
and then miss an entire year due to injury (or miss enough of a year to qualify for a Medical Hardship Waiver) run up against the 5 year clock. Even if they get the Medical Hardship Waiver that gives them back a year to compete, they no longer have any eligibility left in which to use it.
In order to get another year of eligibility, the athlete needs a different type of waiver, known as a "5 Year Clock Extension." In order to qualify for this, the athlete needs to show that the equivalent of 2 seasons were missed due to factors "outside of the athlete's or the institution's control." This is where the wiggle room comes in. You
do not have to hit the "Medical Hardship Waiver" criteria for a clock extension. You only need to show that hardship caused the athlete to miss a total of 2 seasons. This can be injury, or other hardship factors, like leaving to care for a sick parent, or leaving to support family.
In the case of injury, the analysis is
similar to the one used for a Medical Hardship Waiver but does not require the specific criteria be met (i.e. 30%, season ending, and in first half of the season). It merely requires the athlete show that he or she did not have "the opportunity to participate." In application it is actually
more strict than the Medical Hardship Waiver. That said, because there are no specific criteria, a single competition date in the second half of the season is not determinative.
Assuming Ash does not compete at all this year, he does not need to file for a Medical Hardship Waiver for 2017-18. He will not compete at all and will not use up any of his 4 competition years. He will need to apply for a 5 Year Clock Extension, because this will be his 5th year since enrolling. He will need to show that for reasons outside his control, he missed the equivalent of 2 seasons. This year is obviously one - they will provide medical evidence showing he cannot compete this year due to a season ending injury sufered before the start of the season. His redshirt year will be the other year. They will have to show that he missed the "equivalent of the entire season" due to his injury that year. As noted above, for purposes of granting a clock extension, the fact that he participated in the NCO at the end of the season is not determinative. Rather, he will only have to show that he missed so much time due to injury that year that he was effectively denied an opportunity to participate.