FoxDad and JABMK,
There won't be an NLI since the school is not committing any $$ to the player. It is all verbal. My son had a similar "offer" and in discussions with admissions he was just like any other incoming student so there were no prioritized class selections or housing. To the school he was not a student-athlete until after classes started and he was put on the fall roster by the coach. We happened to know the coach was on thin ice so we were very suspect of the opportunity. The coach was subsequently fired and I am pretty sure my son would have been up a creek as there would have likely been no record of him even existing to the baseball program.