Ask Coach Taylor – What Happens if I Change my Mind About my Commitment?
November 11th, 2009 - byCoach Taylor – If a Letter of Intent is offered and signed and the student changes his/her mind what are the results? Will this hurt the student scholarships and/or opportunities at the other university?
The National Letter of Intent is a binding document. In other words, “a prospective student-athlete agrees to attend the designated college or university for one academic year (if they sign this document)” and you are held to this agreement. Therefore, you could not change your mind and participate in athletics at another college that participates with the National Letter of Intent. I recommend you read through their website to learn more about the National Letter of Intent – www.nationalletter.org.
To answer your other questions, as soon as a student-athlete signs a Letter of Intent all other schools who participate in the National Letter of Intent Program must stop recruiting that student-athlete. If a program follows up with the student-athlete because they do not know the Letter of Intent was signed it is the student-athlete’s responsibility to tell them that they have signed a National Letter of Intent.
Send your recruiting questions to askcoachtaylor@ncsasports.org
To get your questions answered immediately, call 866-579-6272 to speak with a NCSA Recruiting Coordinator.
December 13th, 2009 at 5:43 am
What if you are recruited and the impossible happens such as what happened recently at Cincinatti? You sign the letter and then the coach leaves, can you back out of it at that time? Would that be considered a contract breaker?
December 13th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Michael – The first day a senior football player in HS can sign his NLI is the first week of February, senior year. (Juco players sign this month starting Dec 16th.) The NLI is binding between the college and the student-athlete. See here: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/nli/NLI/Frequently+Asked+Questions/
Once signed, the student-athlete is contractually bound to attend that school, regardless of what the coach does after the NLI is signed. If a player has verbally committed to Cincinatti, he can back out of that verbal commitment. The flip side also holds: if the new coaching staff doesn’t want that student-athlete, they can rescind their verbal commitment also. That is why most student-athletes want to have many options. This situation is also why families seek advice and help in navigating this process.