Letter of Intent

The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is the actual scholarship contract that both the athlete and the university sign. It stipulates the exact value of the scholarship and the obligations that both parties agree to. The wording of the contract is decided upon the NCAA and is the same for all schools. The only thing that varies is the monetary value of the contract.

The NLI can only be signed during two periods of an athletes senior year of high school; November 7-11, 2007 and after April 7, 2008. It is a binding agreement and once signed has very harsh penalties should either party break it.

In Canada there are no NLI’s. This in part also means that although you could be offered a scholarship or a position on a team, there are no guarantees once you show up for your first semester or University “tryouts”. This is one of the major weaknesses of the CIS in that many promises can be made but there is no binding agreement for the coach to keep them. We know of instances where Canadian female athletes have been offered a “spot” on a university roster and accompanying scholarship, however after tryouts were no longer given a position on a team. (also known as “go pack your bags”) This volatility would never occur in the NCAA because these rules are put into place to “protect” the athlete.

Generally athletes do not wait until the signing dates to make up their minds which school they will attend and ever year this timeline moves up. Once an athlete has determined where they want to go they “Verbally Commit” to the school and or coach. This means that they are giving their word that they will sign with that school at the next signing date. It also means that the school is giving their word that they will honor their offer of a scholarship. Very rarely are these offers reneged as the NCAA would severely frown on this type of behavior from the coaches/schools.

By NCAA rules, all scholarship offers are a one year contract renew-able every year for four (4) years.