If a student-athlete "qualifies" for exception-based academic monies, they would not count against the team equivalency if awarded, but accumulate toward the individual limts. The application for admissions usually also doubles as the application for university scholarships.
Outside scholarships based on academics and not athletically based do not count toward the team equivalency but accumulate toward the individual limts.
If the coach recruits and an NLI is signed, he is a counter, and will receive an additional 25% minimum baseball grant.
The total package, in a nutshell can not exceed the individual limit based on COA, and now appears that if the dollars total exceeded the limit, academic money would be reduced first.
I would venture to say that a coach would try to convince anyone he is recruiting with a 3.5 or better to be a non-counter/ non NLI player.
Remember, the maximum counters are 30, then 27. Nobody is saying a roster could include 20 counters and 15 non-counters??