@Francis7 posted:No argument there.
But what if...
Knowing that he cannot play, he decides to leave school after the fall semester and enroll in a Juco because it's less expensive, closer to home and preferred rehab and he was never in love with the campus life at his school anyway.
In the scenario described, as long as this athlete is just rehabbing at the JUCO in the Spring and doesn't play for them, that will be considered a redshirt season, even at a D3 JUCO.
Athletes at the NCAA D1 level (or at other college levels planning to transfer to D1) need to keep in mind that D1 has a 5-year eligibility "clock" as mentioned previously. The other levels of four-year colleges instead have a 10-semester or 15-quarter rule, and only the semesters of full-time enrollment count toward the 10-semester limit.
For the athlete in this specific scenario, if he does transfer from a four-year college to a JUCO, keep in mind that there are specific academic requirements that will need to be satisfied while attending the JUCO in order to be eligible in his first season upon transfer back to an NCAA program (whether D1, D2, or D3).