The NCAA rule states that any recruited student athlete counts as being on scholarship for the 13 scholarship limit whether they receive a scholarship or not. Once the staff spends money to recruit a player to a school they're a scholarship player forever and for all time. That's technically how the rule is written.
I thought scholarships were actually year-to-year, and it was practically a cardinal rule for some coaches to honor it for four years. Not mandatory. Maybe, in this scenario since he was offered and signed a scholarship, then was drafted professionally, this particular rule applies. Who knows!?!
By the way, how come you didn't acknowledge Meyer's article and Zags' tweet, but posted Telep's arbitrary response (probably, was you who asked him the question), hoyahooligan?