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.  

1.  The NLI applies to athletes entering a 4 yr school for the first time
2.  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.....
3.   If you sign a pro sports contract for your sport, you are still bound by the NLI for all other      sports.
4.   The NLI is satisfied if you attend for either one academic year or graduate from a two-year    school.
5.   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. 
6.   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)
7. No contact with or from other schools once signed, other than a 'hello'.   This lasts until actual enrollment by the athlete
8.  7 days to sign
9.   Coaching Changes don't void the NLI.
10.   The college coach may not be present when the NLI is signed. 
11.   The scholarship can't be terminated or lowered ('gradated') for an athlete's ability or     contribution to team's success, nor for an injury.
12.   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