Why only men's bball and football? Other sports have intensive, year-round commitments as well. The only way the logic makes any sense is if you expand the rule to all athletes. That is impossibly expensive as you're essentially increasing your scholarship costs across the board by almost 25%. It's a dumb rule either way. For football, the only thing the athlete would not be doing is suiting up on gameday and/or traveling to road games, right? Redshirts go to every practice, film session and team meeting if I'm not mistaken.