quote:Originally posted by birdman14:
Justbaseball - You have it correct. Walk ons and academic aid kids can't be announced until they start practice in the fall. As you have said, only athletic aid recruits can be talked about or announced. .....
The rule is different.
13.10.2 Comments Before Signing. Before the signing of a prospective student-athlete to a National Letter of Intent or an institution’s written offer of admission and/or financial aid, a member institution may comment publicly only to the extent of confirming its recruitment of the prospective student-athlete......
Signing a NLI implies that the signee will receive athletic aid. However, a college can also announce the acceptance of a offer of admission or of any kind of aid. So if a player has signed a non-NLI letter of intent or other offer, when can the college announce?
The D1 rule is ambiguous in my opinion:
13.9.2 Letter of Intent Restriction. A member institution may not participate in an institutional or conference athletics letter-of-intent program or issue an institutional or conference financial aid agreement that involves a signing date that precedes the initial regular (as opposed to early) signing date for the National Letter of Intent program in the same sport. However, an institution may permit a prospective student-athlete to sign an institutional or conference letter of intent during the National Letter of Intent early signing period in the applicable sport. (Revised: 12/12/06, 4/26/07 effective 8/1/07)
The better-written D2 rule says it is OK to sign a non-NLI agreement during the early period, but once the early period has elapsed, no signing may take place until the regular NLI signing period. In other words, non-NLI signings must follow the same calendar as NLI signings.
I believe that the D1 wording is intended to mean the same as the D2 rule.
It is clear that a college may announce a recruit, even if no athletic aid is involved, as soon as he has signed an agreement.