So I've got an unbalanced class situation. Had 7 freshmen (due to a prior redshirt) - redshirted 1, then next season had 6 sophomores, redshirted another, now still have 5 juniors. I know I can keep trying to apply redshirt, but it seems juniors almost never take it. Is it worth the WE hit the kid will take to even out the recruiting classes, or should I just roll with the unbalance. If I leave it be, I've got 2 SR, 5 JR, 3 SO and will have 2 FR coming in...

Balance it out later... there's no bonus points for doing it through redshirts.

right - I get lost in the current class configuration sometimes...I should just focus more on recruiting a non freshmen down the road to help balance things out...I should have realized that myself I guess...thanks for the forehead smack :)

I guess I was focusing on the losing 5 seniors at a time thing...

I agree. I'd wait till the class of 5 graduates. Then just pick up a JUCO2 and a JUCO3 and bing bang boom you have classes of 3 3 3 3.

The more players you have in one class, the better you will be in their SR year. If you want to make the NT every season and maybe make the S16 when you get lucky, try and get a balanced class. If you want to throw out a large classes FR year and end up with a .500 record, but have a good shot at winning the NT their SR year, sign a 6 player class. This is most true in D2/D3 IMO since players do not leave early on you.

I'm with Pork. I think you have a better chance of actually winning it all if you don't constantly strive to have balanced classes. I like having my one lopsided class be 5 players, one at each position.

I have never tried to balance my classes, I go with what I have and work from there. Redshirting is almost useless with FSS.

The only reason to RS any more is to have a player who has a 1 year advantage in IQ. From a practice plan aspect it is currently useless since almost all players will max out their ratings by the end of their 3rd season.

Back in the day, redshirting was a great/fun tool to use and make your team better, but they killed that aspect of HD.

I still try and redshirt someone each season. Rarely do you really need to go 3 deep at a position, typically 2 deep will work fine. So I'll throw a redshirt on one of the players who doesn't make the 2 deep. There really aren't negatives, you just gain the IQ advantage down the road.

id much rather have a fr that will improve drastically in his first year then a kid that isn't improving at all for the entire year.

Quote: Originally Posted By zhawks on 11/24/2009
id much rather have a fr that will improve drastically in his first year then a kid that isn't improving at all for the entire year.

Hmmm....RS's do improve during their RS year. They may max out earlier then (ala their Junior Year (year 4) rather than Senior Year), but thats it. I don't perceive that as a bad thing either.

Are you thinking of ineligible's?

I try to r/s if possible. I like bigger classes but they are not needed to win an nt. I would do what ever fit. I r/s players whom are not going to be needed that season. If they are going to ride the pine then why not sit them.