What’s the diff b/w preferred walk on and walk on?

One has the word preferred in front of it. Duh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4W49K3sUmo

New Preferred Walk-On, Jack Anderson is transferring in from Keystone College. Average 21 points a game for Keyston College, a D3 squad with a losing record. He shot 39.6% from three with 74 made last season. He was also an Academic All-American. Not expecting any meaningful minutes for him but there are certainly worse guys to have at the end of your bench.

But anyone who redshirted in 20-21 is seemingly eligible for the covid season?

Lets do a hypothetical scenario. Freshman comes in during 20-21 at a non Ivy League school and they do not play that season, for all practical purposes they are still a freshman because 20-21 does not count as a season for eligibility purposes

That player would still have 5 years to complete 4. So they could play 21-22, 22-23, 23-24 and 24-25. They would not get a fifth year beyond that .

So what people are calling a covid year in that theoretical case (24-25)is nothing more than what the NCAA rules already allow.

The NCAA rule is a player is allowed 5 years to complete 4 years of eligibility. What happened is the NCAA declared that 2020-21 did not count toward a year of eligibility. They never actually granted 5 years as some media outlets erroneously state. Yes some players did play 5 years because their league played in 2020-21 but the Ivy League didnt.

 So in Dingle and Ledlum case , they started in 2019-20 , did not play in 2020-21 because Ivy League had no season, and then competed in 21-22, 22-23, and 23-24.

So from NCAA standpoint Dingle and Ledlum  got their  5 to play 4 . Another way of looking at this, is if Dingle and Ledlum where freshman in 2020-21 they would still have another year of eligibility this season.

It will be interesting to see if they win the Anti Trust element of their case, could that open the door to unlimited years of eligibility?

I'm aware of the rules. I'm just suprised they didn't cave

Would rather have kept the continuity than risk any letter writing.