Had to dig this up because of what Nouili said today in the press conference:
" He said he was still able to do “everything” with the team – except practice or play in the actual games. So he was still showing up in meetings, was still around his coaches and teammates and was still on the sidelines on Saturdays."
Revisiting this in the D1 manual:
What is really interesting is that if you test positive for a banned substance you aren't just ineligible, but you lose a year of eligibility. It's very similar to the one year residence rule for a second transfer - you can practice but not play for a year. In fact, you can serve a residence rule year and drug ban year simultaneously. NN did not lose a year of eligibility, I believe.
The penalty of being ineligible to play and practice - without a loss of any eligibility - is for failure to sign the annual consent form which allows the NCAA to test.
We will likely never know exactly what happened, but because the press originally said he could practice, it sounds like the penalty may have initially been a positive test suspension that for some reason the University was able to appeal and get settled as a form signing penalty for a year in order to preserve a year of NN's eligibility.