I don't agree with that last point. Injuries are part of sports, sure, but they are largely out of a player's control. Whether it was 15 minutes or not, he knew the rule that taking the field would count as a year. Whether that rule is stupid/unfair is one question, but it was the rule. And he chose to play. I understand that he doesn't appear to be a guy taking advantage of anything, and that he probably would have preferred to play football from day one if he had legit offers to do so, but every college athlete for decades has known that by taking the field/court, you are burning a year unless you get a medical redshirt. Obviously the lawsuits and JUCO stuff that have popped up the past couple years have changed a lot of things, but he did make the decision to play.
Think of it this way: if Holst had chosen to play 15 minutes of basketball this season, that would burn a year for him. He knows that, and it's obviously why he decided to redshirt. Does it really matter that in Owen's case, he played his 15 minutes in a different sport than his current one?
