Quote:Then college football likes to confuse people. If you say, "I played football last year," you are a former football player. So "I redshirted last year," must mean you are a former redshirt. Now can you see what I am getting at?

It's fairly straight forward. Last year he was a true freshman, but was ineligible to play because of his red shirt status. This year he is a red shirt freshman, because it is his first year of NCAA eligibility. Were he not red shirted he would be a true sophomore this year. This allows you to extend the NCAA eligibility of athletes.

 

True Freshman - academic year 1           Red Shirt Freshman - academic year 2

True Sophomore - academic year 2         Red Shirt Sophomore - academic year 3

True Junior - academic year 3                  Red Shirt Junior - academic year 4

True Senior - academic year 4                 Red Shirt Senior - academic year 5


It's a "stash a jar on the shelf" sort of situation. 


The classification of red shirt informs that the player was red shirted at some point during his academic tenure. Since an athlete only has 4 years on NCAA eligibility, it is beneficial to stash a guy on the red shirt list for a year if you already have a junior/senior at his position and won't need him until the following year anyway. You don't have to be a freshman to be red shirted.

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