For any high school athletes, parents and even some coaches, you always hear about signing a “Letter of Intent” or the BIG “Signing Day”, etc.   It is amazing that a lot of people don’t really know what is involved with the Letter of Intent, other than the fact that it represents an athlete’s commitment to a particular college.   Here is a little information that should prove helpful…..

What is the National Letter of Intent (NLI)?

The NLI is a binding agreement between a prospective student-athlete and an NLI member institution

• A prospective student-athlete agrees to attend the institution full-time for one academic year (two semesters or three quarters).
• The institution agrees to provide athletics financial aid for one academic year (two semesters or three quarters).

Basic penalty for not fulfilling the NLI agreement:   A student-athlete has to serve one year in residence (full-time, two semesters or three quarters) at the next NLI member institution and lose one season of competition in all sports.

It seems for most high school student-athletes and their parents, the dream of going to college and playing their sport via scholarship means being seen on ESPN every Saturday or on the pages of Sports Illustrated.  Well, the reality is that there are only so many scholarship openings to be filled and a thousand times that of recruits looking to fill them!  Not to mention, not everyone is the caliber of athlete that can fill a Division I or even a Division II roster spot.