When an athlete transfers, the rules required players to sit out 1 academic year from participating in games, they could participate in practices and team events, just not games for the duration of 1 academic year.
The athlete could use their red-shirt year to preserve the year of athletic eligibility, but if the student had already used their redshirt year the student would a year of eligibility.
Squally Canada:
- Graduated HS in 2014 and enrolled at WSU for the 2014/2015 School year
- 2014 football season - Used his Redshirt - 4 years of athletic eligibility remain
- 2015 football season - Transferred to BYU for the winter 2015 semester. He lost a year of eligibility due to transferring after he had used his redshirt year. due to rules he would be eligible to play as soon as the Fall semester completed. Due to transfer rules 3 years of athletic eligibility remain. (note: if BYU had of played in a bowl game prior to the end of the fall semester, Squally would not have been able to play in the game and eligibility would still have been the same with 3 years remaining) Because the bowl game happened after fall semesters ended
- 2016 football season - Played the full season - 2 years of eligibility remaining
- 2017 football season - Played the full season - 1 year of eligibility remaining
- 2018 football season - Played the full season - No eligibility remaining