Anytime a new rule is implemented for college football, the analysts look for two things: One, was the rule designed to thwart the dominance of Nick Saban’s Alabama. Two, how will Saban use that to the Crimson Tide’s advantage.

The determination that Run-Pass Options, in which the play is designed to look like a run (and is blocked like a run) and then becomes a pass was a prime example. Saban was adamantly opposed to the way the RPOs were being officiated insofar as downfield blocking was allowed, but he lost that battle.

Or did he?

Alabama now has RPO has a staple of its offense as the Crimson Tide continues to dominate.

More recently, Saban argued against relaxed regulations on transfers. Again, he lost. Look again, says the evidence. Saban has the resources (analysts) to find potential transfers when and if Alabama has a need for immediate help, and it is not lost on anyone that this should be a gain for the Tide. There are not many good football players at Alabama who are anxious to leave, but there are likely many very fine players at mediocre programs who could see the benefit of playing for the nation’s best coach and most dominant team – and the guy who does the best job of putting players into the NFL.

Now comes the new NCAA rule regarding redshirting. In a nutshell, the old rule was that a player had five years in which to play four. Not playing at all (or playing only early in the season and suffering an injury) would allow a player to be redshirted, thus gaining that fifth year for four years of competition.

The new rule allows a player to play up to four games at any time during the season and maintain that redshirt option.

Does Nick Saban have another rule to exploit?

It appears this is a rule that is good for everyone, benefiting no program more than another. (We’ll be watching, though, to see a backlash that Saban has yet again and implemented a benefit that no one else saw.)

Ordinarily, there are two beneficiaries of the redshirt rule – old and presumably new.

One is that freshman who is not quite ready to play or who is not yet needed to play because of depth at his position and who spends the first year as a member of the scout team.

The other is that player who has not yet been redshirted, but who has played in a previous season, who suffers an injury or for some other reason is not able to play in a season beyond his freshman season.

In the past, Saban has from time-to-time pointed out that no one is designated a redshirt until the completion of a season (and it could actually be longer than that).

Most famously, perhaps, late in Bama’s 2009 national championship season, Saban was asked who would be Greg McElroy’s replacement should McElroy be injured in the post-season. In what was a surprise to most, Saban said it would be AJ McCarron, a freshman who had not played in a game that season, and thus had four more years of eligibility beginning in 2010 provided he was not needed late in 2009. (He wasn’t.) Under the new rule, he could have played in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game or the BCS National Championship Game and still maintained that year of eligibility.

A couple of issues this year have brought up the subject of the new redshirt rule insofar as Alabama’s 2018 team.

The unfortunate injury this month to linebacker Terrell Lewis – who has not been redshirted – gives him a future option, as would have been the case even without the new rule. He has suffered an ACL injury and has undergone what he has termed “successful surgery.” (Has any surgeon ever said, “Well, I botched that one.”?

Conventional wisdom is that no matter how far Alabama goes in this season and post-season, Lewis would not be ready to participate. But technology in rehabilitation is constantly changing the time frame for recovery, so suppose Lewis could come back for post-season competition, no more than four games?

In that case he would be eligible to return for a fifth year in 2019, even though he had helped the 2018 team at the end of the season.

(Another story is what Lewis might elect to do insofar as his future career. It might be taking a chance to enter the NFL draft when he has missed the bulk of his last two seasons with major injuries. By returning for a fifth year, he might be able to play an injury-free season and improve his draft status. But, of course, he might suffer yet another injury. Tough decision.)

The injury to Lewis – along with the near-simultaneous dismissal of linebacker VanDarius Cowan -- may affect the Tide’s redshirt options in that someone who had been considered not likely to play will be in the lineup.

A less plausible area of discussion concerns Alabama’s quarterback situation, which is a never-ending subject regardless of the redshirt rule.

Junior Jalen Hurts is the returning starter and sophomore Tua Tagovailoa is presumed to have overthrown the king with his performance in the CFP national championship win over Georgia at the end of last season.

Alabama wants to keep both, of course, but the trend of recent years has been that quarterbacks not starting pack their bags.

Without further comment, there are those who suggest that Tua wins the job, Saban plays Jalen in no more than four games in order to preserve his year of eligibility, and then Hurts leaves.

Under the old rule, there could be no use of a player even in a romp over a cupcake without costing that redshirt option. It is foolhardy to suggest to Saban that in games against, on, say, Arkansas State or Louisiana-Lafayette or The Citadel, that perhaps Tide fans would see some young players.

But just maybe those games become easy wins for Bama with big leads late, and some who have not played in other games get a chance to show what they can do – again, without jeopardizing future eligibility.

Just as an example of where very good players might not get a chance to play in some games, Saban has said the Tide will have to get some help from incoming defensive backs. He added five of them in this recruiting class, but Bama is having to fill five or six secondary roles of those who moved on after last season.

It may be that some of them become instant (or at least early) contributors and that some others get just a few opportunities, but come back to star in later years.

One final thought: The NCAA often moves slowly, but it could be this relaxation of the redshirt rule could be a first step towards allowing players five full years of eligibility.