On the Recruiting Trail - Signing Your National Letter of Intent (NLI)
Mates,
Continuing on with the 'Recruitment Series' of Diary posts, folks said they were interested in seeing an actual National Letter of Intent (NLI) that gets signed. At the bottom is my 2021 son's letter which he and I signed yesterday. As mentioned, a very happy day in the XM household.
Completely without a plan, this is the fourth part in an unintended series, with the first diary about a year ago on 'The Offer', then in July a 'Recruiting During Covid' diary, and finally one about 'The Commitment' a couple of months ago. With the technical assistance of one of our favorite mgobloggers, scanner blue, away we go. I'm only going to hit what are hopefully the high points, leave out some of the picayune nuances, and try to make this easy to read. I have cut-n-pasted the actual letter at the bottom for those who want to try and read it.
- The NLI applies to athletes entering a 4 yr school for the first time
- The college must provide a written list of the 'terms, conditions and amount of athletic award' which the athlete must sign. Parent or guardian must also sign the NLI and the way they do it is that athlete signs, sends it in to the school, and then the institution sends the form to the parent/guardian to sign. Of course nowadays this is all electronic. Faxes are so 2000's.....
- If you sign a pro sports contract for your sport, you are still bound by the NLI for all other sports.
- The NLI is satisfied if you attend for either one academic year or graduate from a two-year school.
- Football players can't sign up for another sport and beat the signing time, meaning a if kid is going to play football and another sport, they must not sign until the football signing period.
- The NLI becomes null and void for a whole host of reasons: denied admission; a non- qualifier; a one year absence from school, even if its for the military or a church mission; discontinued sport; *recruiting rules violation* (looking at you, SEC and ohio)
- No contact with or from other schools once signed, other than a 'hello'. This lasts until actual enrollment by the athlete
- 7 days to sign
- Coaching Changes don't void the NLI.
- The college coach may not be present when the NLI is signed.
- The scholarship can't be terminated or lowered ('gradated') for an athlete's ability or contribution to team's success, nor for an injury.
- The scholarship can be terminated or lessened for a failure to satisfy the academic requirements, voluntarily rendering oneself ineligible, fraudulently mis-representing anything about the application or NLI, or engaging in serious misconduct
Signing periods - staggered all over the place by sport and you can pick those up from the top of the form.
Prior to signing day they send you this letter to look over. You discuss it with your son/daughter and go over it with them. Hopefully they are very clear on their decision - I do think it would be a burden to be indecisive as it is a huge decision and I have a lot of sympathy for any student or family who is uncertain about their choice. But on that day your child signs it and hits the 'send' button. Then an email shows up in your box and you then sign it. And you hit the 'send' button. And guess what, your dear child just committed for real and it's time to celebrate a ton of work your child has put in. Congratulations to you both.
XM
February 4th, 2021 at 9:29 PM ^
One question - where?
One statement - congratulations!
February 4th, 2021 at 9:35 PM ^
Definitely not Slippery Rock. Or any other school featuring a green "S" as their logo.
February 4th, 2021 at 10:07 PM ^
thank you. so glad for the son. he loves the game of football so much and he's pretty jazzed about school, too.
February 4th, 2021 at 10:49 PM ^
Congrats XM! Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!
February 5th, 2021 at 11:11 AM ^
Congrats sir! Glad your son gets to do something he loves and gets a "free" education to boot.
Sounds like from previous posts he really wanted that school, so hopefully the homesickness bug doesn't bite too hard.
February 5th, 2021 at 6:04 PM ^
Congratulations XM. May your son have a great experience as a student athlete.
February 5th, 2021 at 6:22 PM ^
Congratulations XM. This news is fun to hear. I’m sure for most kids it’s pretty amazing and real to be looking at what is a serious contract.
February 5th, 2021 at 6:49 PM ^
collective thank you to 1who/carpet/maul/DD. thank you for the well-wishes. i think he was so solid in his decision that in one sense it made things easy for him and he was eager to read and eventually sign the NLI.
February 5th, 2021 at 8:34 PM ^
Congrats to the entire family! A former colleague of mine had his NLI framed in his office. He said it was the best decision of his life and set him on a path to a quality of life his family had never experienced.
February 6th, 2021 at 12:11 PM ^
Grats X! I'm sure there will be exciting times ahead! *manic happy emogi*
February 6th, 2021 at 9:05 PM ^
Congrats to your family and your son. What a great feeling !
February 6th, 2021 at 10:10 PM ^
Congrats to your son, XM! And thanks for the behind-the-scenes look at the process.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:32 PM ^
Big old attaboy to you and you wife, XM. Raising kids isn’t easy in the first place, but bringing up your boy to set and reach goals is special.
February 8th, 2021 at 1:55 PM ^
That's awesome. I have a feeling he will be just as successful in the classroom as he is on the field.
February 8th, 2021 at 2:32 PM ^
leave out some of the picayune nuances
Thank you for educating me on more than just NLI
February 9th, 2021 at 12:57 AM ^
Congrats, XM! You must be so proud!
February 9th, 2021 at 6:22 AM ^
thanks yak/good/vic/blue/ted/eyb/grampy/son. i'm doing my best not to be proud, but to be happy for my son and really excited about the opportunity and joy that i think this decision and path brings him. he is reporting to training camp in 6 months and we have next year's schedule and there is a real chance that our saturdays are going to be spent on the road at various college campuses. wild.
February 9th, 2021 at 10:11 AM ^
So it's like getting a mortgage.
February 9th, 2021 at 2:11 PM ^
if you mean the electronic signature part, like 'docusign', then yes, like a mortgage.
if you mean substantively like a mortgage, its identical also.... except for you pay no money and get to live in the house for free for 4 yrs and play your most favorite game on the planet.
February 9th, 2021 at 12:02 PM ^
I am looking forward to the ongoing series about playing college football, preparing for the NFL draft, the draft night, playing in the NFL, becoming a Pro Bowler, winning the Super Bowl, and being voted to the Hall of Fame!
I enjoyed your diaries and hope there are more to come!
February 9th, 2021 at 2:13 PM ^
i'm afraid that except for the first part, the rest would have to be very creative fiction writing. but you are a champ for sending out that encouragement, thank you.
February 14th, 2021 at 11:14 AM ^
I can't imagine deciding as a high school senior making a commitment for the next four years of my life. That's major.
Thanks for sharing your family's process with us.
Congratulations to him and your family!
Congratulations too to the school that will benefit from his contributions.
He's a great fellow. I also know what it means to participate in a sports team and study at the same time. Therefore, I often take information for homework from this source so as not to waste my precious time writing texts that are not interesting to me. So I have more time for training and personal life.
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