Del Rio gets the title of "invited walk-on." A guy like Will Lowery, who showed up for fall camp and tried out does not get that title. Because Luke is an invited walk-on, he would count towards the signing class of this year if he plays his first two years on campus. This prevents a school from truly oversigning by getting 25 signees plus a 5*, who can afford his scholarship to walk-on and play right-a-way.Are we sure how that works? Couldn't walk-ons be a way around the 25 signing limit the SEC imposed? You can only give out 25 scholarships per year, according to NCAA rules, but a single academic causality can drop that to 24, while the SEC's signing limit is still imposed.
It seems to me that if you play a walk-on, and still have to count against the scholarship numbers, it shouldn't count against the signing limit, since he was never actually signed. If they're going to function as two separate things otherwise, why wouldn't they continue to do so? Anyway, I think the incentive weighs heavily toward using Luke as as redshirt sophomore. Blake Sims will be graduated, AJ will be gone, and he can make a run at the starting job without impacting the numbers.
Your scenario, though, is what I was wondering. Because of the wording of the SEC rule, one would believe Alabama could use Ely's scholarship and give to Del Rio. That is, however, if there are not already 85 scholarship players. Jim Dunaway tweeted yesterday he counted 85 after Ely's transfer. If the two recruits yet to arrive on campus do not qualify, Del Rio may become a scholarship player if I understand the SEC rule.