There are a few different ways to keep yourself or other players on a roster in school for longer in College Football 26. However, the easiest and most popular way to do this is through the redshirt feature. A player who is a “redshirt” is granted an extra year of eligibility in school, and this usually comes about through that player not playing enough during their freshman season.
The process of redshirting yourself or another player in College Football 26 is enticing for a number of reasons. For starters, it allows your player in Road to Glory to gain more experience and makes the playthrough last a little longer. It also gives some of your better roster players a chance to stay in school an extra year in Dynasty mode, which might mean you don’t have to recruit as hard during the offseason.
How To Redshirt Yourself In Road To Glory
Let’s begin with the default mode in CFB 26, Road to Glory. At the start of Road to Glory, you play through some key moments in high school, pick a school that recruited you, and begin your college journey as a freshman student. You can also use custom teams in Road to Glory through the Team Builder feature if you want.
In any case, once you start your college career in Road to Glory, you won’t have much of a choice as to whether you redshirt or not during your freshman season. Road to Glory doesn’t allow you to redshirt yourself. However, this doesn’t mean it’s not possible.
The only way you can redshirt your freshman season is by playing in four games or fewer across the entire year. So, if you appear in five games, you’ll be counted as a regular freshman, and the next season you’ll be considered a standard sophomore. If you appear in three games, though, you’ll automatically receive the redshirt status, giving you an extra year of eligibility at the college level.
Of course, once again, Road to Glory doesn’t let you pick and choose which games you compete in throughout the season. The best way to guarantee that you play in four games or fewer during your freshman season is to initially select a school where you’ll be buried on the depth chart.
For example, if you’re a lower-tier recruit who wants to redshirt, you want to view the schools that are recruiting you and take a look at their depth charts. If your position is covered by three or four players with higher ratings than you, you likely won’t get too much playing time freshman year. On the flip side, if you see the depth chart is lacking in your position or there are players with lower ratings, then you have a higher chance of playing in more than four games.
The recruitment level you selected before Road to Glory begins also plays a factor here. If you choose to be a top-tier recruit, then you’ll usually receive some playing time regardless of where you attend school and the depth chart at the start of the season. However, if you’re a mid or low-tier recruit, you can almost always skate by freshman year as long as you choose a school with decent players at your position.
So, to sum up, the best way to redshirt in Road to Glory is by attending a school where your position has a full depth chart in front of you. This should allow you to play in four or fewer games freshman season and receive the redshirt status.
How To Redshirt Players In Dynasty Mode
Fortunately, redshirting players in Dynasty mode is far simpler than it is in Road to Glory. Since you’re the coach making all the decisions, you can manually decide which players are going to redshirt and which players are going to play a majority of the season.
To redshirt a player in Dynasty mode, follow the steps below:
- Go to the Dynasty mode main menu in CFB 26
- Scroll over to the “Team” tab in the main menu
- Go down to the “Redshirts” section and select it to see all of the players who are eligible to receive the redshirt status
- Hover over the player you want to redshirt and press A/X to give them the status
Once a player has been given the redshirt status, this doesn’t halt them from playing in games throughout their season. You can still select them to be on the active roster, so the redshirt decision isn’t a permanent one. However, you do need to watch out for this if you wholeheartedly don’t want a specific player playing in games.
Luckily, a redshirted player will have an icon by their name after they receive the status, so it’s easy to see who’s been redshirted and who hasn’t. You’ll still want to check the “Redshirts” section in the Team tab throughout the season to make sure everyone you want redshirted still has the status, though.
Just like in Road to Glory, a player is considered to be a redshirt if they appear in four or fewer games throughout the season. So as long as a specific player meets that criteria, they’ll gain an extra year of eligibility for your team in Dynasty mode. This can be used to give your future star players time to gain experience behind your current star players. It also means you have less pressure to recruit better players if you have a few stars in waiting on the bench who can play a fifth year at the college level.
