USIAA National Letter of Intent (NLI) Rules:
The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is a document used to indicate a student athlete's commitment to participating United States Intercollegiate Athletic Association (USIAA) colleges and universities in the United States. The USIAA Eligibility Center manages the daily operations of the NLI program while the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA) provides governance oversight of the program. The program now includes 676 Division 1 and 2 participating institutions. There are designated dates for different sports, and these dates are commonly referred to as "Signing Day". Division 3 & 4 institutions are specifically banned from using the NLI, or any similar document that is not executed by non-athletes at those institutions.
NLIs are typically faxed by the recruited student to the university's athletic department on a National Signing Day. The NLI is a voluntary program with regards to both institutions and student-athletes. No prospective student-athlete or parent is required to sign the National Letter of Intent, and no institution is required to join the program.
National Letters of Intent may only be signed by prospective student-athletes who will be entering a four-year institution for the first time in the academic year after they sign the NLI. Recruits who have signed NLIs must attend the schools they have signed with in order to receive financial aid, and NCAA rules forbid coaches from recruiting them further; these restrictions aim to add certainty to the recruiting process for players (who are certain to receive aid) and coaches (who are certain that a recruit will attend their school). By contrast, verbal commitments are nonbinding; recruits may change or revoke a verbal commitment at any time, and coaches may continue to recruit a verbally committed player.
There is only one time to sign an NLI, which will be February 1st regardless of the sport(s) that the athlete intends to play.
Getting an NLI Release:
NLIs are typically faxed by the recruited student to the university's athletic department on a National Signing Day. The NLI is a voluntary program with regards to both institutions and student-athletes. No prospective student-athlete or parent is required to sign the National Letter of Intent, and no institution is required to join the program.
National Letters of Intent may only be signed by prospective student-athletes who will be entering a four-year institution for the first time in the academic year after they sign the NLI. Recruits who have signed NLIs must attend the schools they have signed with in order to receive financial aid, and NCAA rules forbid coaches from recruiting them further; these restrictions aim to add certainty to the recruiting process for players (who are certain to receive aid) and coaches (who are certain that a recruit will attend their school). By contrast, verbal commitments are nonbinding; recruits may change or revoke a verbal commitment at any time, and coaches may continue to recruit a verbally committed player.
There is only one time to sign an NLI, which will be February 1st regardless of the sport(s) that the athlete intends to play.
Getting an NLI Release:
- If an athlete is transferring after finishing an academic year at a school, the National Letter of Intent you may have signed with the school does not impact the transfer, since the NLI will be fulfilled. If you signed an NLI and want to transfer before finishing your freshman year, then you will need a release from the NLI in addition to permission to contact other schools and/or permission to use the one-time transfer exception.
- While the NLI is in effect, it can impact a transfer in two ways. First, the NLI includes a recruiting ban, so other schools may not recruit an athlete until they are released from that ban. Second, the NLI includes a penalty if an athlete does not attend the school an athlete signed with for one academic year. If an athlete does not fulfill the NLI and enroll in another NLI school, they may not compete for one year and will lose one season of eligibility in all sports.
- To get a release from the National Letter of Intent, an athlete must use the release form on the NLI website. After they fill out your section of the form, they will send a copy of the form to 2 places: their school’s athletic department offices and to the NLI offices at the USIAA Eligibility Center. Once they send the form, the athletic department must respond within 30 days. There are three options for them to respond:
a) No release – This means the athlete are not released from the NLI and all of its provisions are still in effect.
b) Complete release – This means you are released from all of the NLI’s provisions.
c) Removal of the recruiting ban – This means the recruiting ban is lifted, but the NLI penalty is still in effect if they do not fulfill the NLI. - NLI releases cannot be school-specific, like permission to contact. So an athlete cannot be released to one school but not another. Because of this, many schools will first remove the recruiting ban, but may not grant a complete release until the school knows where an athlete plans to transfer.
- If a release is not granted, a student-athlete has 30 days to appeal to the NLI Policy and Review Committee (rather than to a group at the school). If the student-athlete losses that appeal, there is a second appeal to the NLI Appeals Committee. Each appeal takes approximately six to eight weeks to get a decision.