College Football 27 Guide: Redshirt Strategy for RTG and Dynasty Growth
In College Football 27, you can manage a player’s development by using a redshirt in Road to Glory (RTG), or by handling a specific athlete in Dynasty. For RTG, redshirting can help you prove yourself more before you’re forced to become eligible for the draft. In Dynasty, it’s also useful when you want to add extra roster depth to a position and give someone time to grow. Still, as with recent entries in the series, the process of actually getting a redshirt to trigger in College Football 27 isn’t always as straightforward as it sounds. I spent time working through both modes to map out how it works.
When a Redshirt Is Available in College Football 27
A player can only be redshirted in the season if they have appeared in fewer than four games and have not already been redshirted before. If the athlete is a freshman and they play four games or less, the game will automatically apply a redshirt. This rule set applies in both Road to Glory and Dynasty modes.
So why go through the trouble? A redshirt gives another full season to get integrated—breaking into the lineup, earning reps, improving their overall status, and drawing attention from major NFL scouts before the game pushes you into draft eligibility. If someone barely sees the field for an entire college year, it can leave them behind compared to teammates and rivals. Redshirting is meant to reduce that disadvantage.
Redshirting a Player in Dynasty Mode
If you want to redshirt a player in Dynasty, open the “Team” tab and then choose the “Redshirts” option from the menu. From there, you’ll be presented with a list of players who have logged four or fewer appearances during the season. Pick the player you want to redshirt, then confirm the decision using A / X.
Players who appear on the list but are shown in grey can’t be selected for another redshirt. That usually happens because they’ve already exceeded the four-game threshold at some point, or because they’ve already been redshirted earlier.
One more important wrinkle: even if you redshirt someone through the menus, they still might be used in actual games. For instance, a QB2 could end up functioning as a kick holder, which counts as game involvement. In practice, that means the player may be treated as having taken snaps even though they didn’t “properly” play in the way you’d expect.
Getting a Redshirt in Road to Glory
In RTG, redshirting is more of a system outcome than a menu choice. Because your focus is on academics, training, and on-field performance, you aren’t directly deciding whether you get the playing time needed to trigger or avoid a redshirt. If you arrive as a Freshman QB3, you’ll likely get very few snaps, and the game will redshirt you almost by default. That can be a blessing in disguise: your first season often becomes about leveling up through training drills, improving grades, and building team chemistry by bonding with teammates.
That said, there are a few approaches you can use to improve your odds of ending up redshirted during an RTG run:
- Fail your academics: If you intentionally tank your classes, you’ll automatically become ineligible to play for that season. If your goal is an extra year, this is framed as the most direct route to forcing a redshirt.
- Choose a 4- or 5-star school: Picking a top-tier program is another straightforward way to increase the chances. Many high-profile teams—such as the Alabama Crimson Tide—tend to have heavy depth at almost every position. With so much competition, it’s harder to break into the lineup in your first year, which can lead to fewer than four games played and result in a redshirt.
Unlike Dynasty mode, there isn’t a specific option in RTG that lets you request a redshirt. Your coach makes the call, so the two tips above are the main strategies to steer the outcome.
Finally, there’s a point worth repeating from the Dynasty section: QB “kick holder” snaps can still interfere with what you think should happen. This can show up in RTG as well, and it can be frustrating to grind through an entire season only to find you didn’t get redshirted because your player was involved in a small way you didn’t even personally control.
