My son just completed his freshman year of D1 ball. He is on scholarship and all things point to him being in the starting lineup next season. The problem is not the school, the teammates or playing time. The problem is the character of the coach or lack thereof. For whatever personal reasons, he seems to be coming undone. This is deeply hurting his ability to "coach" (just comparing the "current him" to his own prior standards), destroying normal "confidence & trust," and undermining his ability to "lead" due to the players no longer being able to respect/follow him. This is causing other quality players to quit the team, creating difficulty in retaining/hiring top-notch coaches and even impacting the caliber of incoming recruits (it appears word is out). If the coach gets fired, this will resolve itself. If not, I sense that my son will revisit his decision to attend this university.
at this point in time, he is not convinced he should stay or convinced he should leave. It is all too much to reflect on right now, as the season is coming to an end. My concern/question is about the contractual agreements that I assume he will be asked to sign before heading home. Prior to his freshman year I believe he signed three documents. 1) National Letter of Intent (NLI). 2) An agreement with his school which spelled out the terms of his scholarship. 3) An agreement with their conference which all scholarship athletes were required to sign.
Q1) Do most/all D1 programs have their returning scholarship athletes sign certain documents before leaving for the summer? This affects how much time my son will have to reflect on this very big decision.
Q2) Will he be asked to sign all three docs again?
Q3) Is the NLI signed annually? I read some articles prior to his signing of the NLI last year that exposed a two year penalty in it's fine print and revealed that it is not an absolutely necessary document. Despite it not being "necessary" in order to be a scholarship athlete, his coach (like most coaches) forced him to sign this one-sided agreement if he wanted his scholarship. My concern here is re that two year penalty and it's potential long-term impact should he have to sign it once again.
Q4) If he signs whatever the other returning players sign, displaying his understanding of the terms and showing his commitment to return for his sophomore year, what are the consequences, if any, should he decide in the next few months to instead go JUCO for one year?
Q5) I understand the transfer rules (thanks to this great website), but am also concerned about any contractual issue (ie. fine print) should he decide to opt out. What if he decided to opt out, transfer to another D1, sit out his one penalty year -- will he only lose a calendar year of eligibility (one of his five), or will he lose a year of competition eligibility (ie, one of his four)?
Q6) Are there any issues or penalties that I am missing or not thinking of?
Thanks, in advance, for any & all wise counsel.
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