Can someone explain to me this "academic redshirt" thing that I've never heard of before this thread? If it is actually real, and it is some loophole that gets non-qualifiers on campus, then Riley should continue to recruit a couple Blades and Watts every year.
An academic redshirt is designed to allow high schoolers, who didn't meet the GPA requirement of 2.3 to be initially eligible, an opportunity to still go to school with their class. The athlete has to have a GPA between 2.0 and 2.99 AND have a qualified SAT/ACT score between 1020 and 910, based on a sliding scale.
IMHO this is rarely used because the standardized test score is where most student athletes, that don't initially qualify, are lacking.
With the sliding scale, the higher the GPA the lower the standardized test score required. For example a 3.5 or above GPA can have an SAT score of 400, where a 2.3 GPA needs to have an 900 score on the SAT.
The GPA is only calculated on 16 core courses 4 years of English, 3 in math, 2 sciences, 2 social sciences and the remaining 5 in combination of additional classes from any of those areas or philosophy, foreign language or religion
Hope that is clear, I am going off memory.