National Letters of Intent and Verbal Commitments

If you are a junior who is in the midst of athletic recruiting or hope to pursue athletics in college, you should be very well versed in all of the terminology that coaches, colleges, and the NCAA use throughout the process. It's important to remember that no matter what kind of conversation you have had with a coach, you are not formally accepted to a college until you receive a letter from the admissions office.

• A Verbal Commitment is the phrase used to describe a college-bound student-athlete’s commitment to a school before he or she is able to sign a National Letter of Intent. A college-bound student athlete can announce a verbal commitment at any time. While verbal commitments have become popular, they are NOT binding on either the college-bound student-athlete or the school.

• National Letter of Intent is the document a prospective student-athlete signs when he or she agrees to attend the designated college or university for one academic year. According to the terms of the National Letter of Intent program, participating institutions agree to provide athletics financial aid for one academic year to the student-athlete, provided he or she is admitted to the institution and is eligible for financial aid under NCAA rules. An important provision of the National Letter of Intent program is a recruiting prohibition applied after a prospective student-athlete signs a National Letter of Intent. This prohibition requires participating institutions to cease recruitment of a prospective student-athlete once a National Letter of Intent is signed with another institution. FYI, National Letters of Intent do not guarantee admission and if a student is not admitted to a school where they have signed an NLI, the NLI is obviously not binding.

The definitions above are from the NCAA website.

 Even more info on the NLI:

A note on the Ivy League:
Bause Ivy League Universities do not offer athletic scholarships - only need based financial aid - they do not offer National Letters of Intent. Sometimes they send out "likely letters" to athletes in the fall of senior year.

Here is an outline of the Ivy League Athletic Recruiting process.
http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/information/psa/index

If you have questions about athletic recruiting talk to your college counselor and Ms. Zarchin in the Athletic Department.

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