National Letter of Intent

[1] NLIs are typically faxed by the recruited student to the university's athletic department on a National Signing Day.

It was not directly affiliated with the NCAA at the time of its creation and was created to protect both the university and student from either party backing out.

Intercollegiate athletics departments are not required to provide financial aid in cases where a student-athlete is not admitted for academic reasons.

Seth Davis, a columnist for Sports Illustrated, has suggested that this arrangement is actually disadvantageous to student-athletes, as they have no recourse if an athletics department decides not to admit a player for non-academic reasons; for example, an athletics department could replace a signed recruit with another recruit by claiming that the first one was not admitted for academic reasons.

[9] The abolition of the NLI in Division I was reportedly tied to the settlement of the House v. NCAA legal case, expected to lead to a revenue-sharing model across college sports.

[10] Given the methods of transmitting NLIs that are available under NCAA rules, the letters are typically faxed by students to the university's athletic department.