The wording in my original post was not accurate. (I saw the info during a late-night/early morning reading.) UCF found out seven weeks into the 2010 season he COULD play, but the coaches didn't want to burn the year for him to play in a few contests so he stuck with the redshirt. See the paragraph from a story on the UCF website:
"Shipman marvels at how far he's come in less than a year's time. After transferring from Florida and changing sports, he was originally ruled ineligible for last season. But that changed seven weeks into the season when UCF's Compliance Department determined that Shipman was eligible to play right away. He hadn't been through spring practice or fall camp, but had become somewhat familiar with the special teams sets by running scout team drills."
http://www.ucfathletics.com/sports/m...033011aaa.html