National Letter of Intent

Go to this website and you will get pretty much everything regarding this issue. Early signing period for baseball players this year is November 12, 2008. The national letter of intent can be signed at the players home and mailed back to the university. I think that only the high profile players are done publicly with the cameras rolling.

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/!ut/p/vp/18_0_9D/kcxml/0...t/NLI/About+the+NLI/

We have tried to either have a coach or assistant coach from an institution invited. They don't always show up but, for the most part, let you know. We ask the player who he wants in the photo besides his parents. That can sometimes vary. Sometimes people make a mistake by not informing the media of the photo. At times, they will show up and take the photo and get you a copy. In our small community, they put those photos in the local paper. We have a table cloth that has our school mascot on it and so, that mascot shows well in the photo. BTW, you don't need the actual document. One parent who had mailed the letter earlier thought that she had messed up the photo. Nope! You can't tell what is on the paper from viewing the photo.

Coach,

According to the NCAA regulations, a coach from the signing instution is not allowed to be present when the signing is taking place:

"No. A coach cannot be present when you sign a National Letter of Intent off campus. Pursuant to NCAA Bylaw 13.1.6.7.1, any in-person, off-campus contact made with a prospect for the purpose of signing a National Letter of Intent or attendance at activities related to the signing of the National Letter of Intent is prohibited."

This was taken directly from the NCAA website.

The Letter of Intent is a serious contract that is four pages in length and is administered by the Collegiate Commissioners Association. The student athlete commits himself/herself to attending a specific college. If the student athlete changes their mind after signing the player must be mutually released by the old and new school.

Additionally, if the player were to change their mind the player loses a year of eligibilty and cannot play for one year. It is a serious commitment that has binding implications and for this reason rules are stringently applied. Also coaches are limited to phoning a recruit except to making calls on the initial date for signing and for two days after that. Following that it is phone calls only once per week.

I know a lot of information has already been given on this subject, but what usually happens is this:

The week of the signing date, 3 copies are sent out to the prospect. Inside these 3 copies are the NLI, the explanation, and the scholarship offer. This is usually done with a return, next day air envelope for the kid to send back the 3 copies to go to the Athletic department, compliance department, and the NCAA. Most of the time you see the signing done, it is immediately shipped out after that.

The signed papers have to be back before the week is out or the dead period ends or the NLI is void.

Also, because it is a dead period the coaches at the school are not allowed to have a contact with a prospect on or off campus.

Yes, to clarify, we run a photo in our various newspapers when those coaches are allowed to do so. Thus not having the copies with us. I should have clarified that. We run those pics as "signing" but that process has already been completed. We put those pictures up in our trophy case. The original topic was what people did. One example is on my wall in my classroom where two players actually had to change from their legion uniforms into their school uniforms for the pic along with their coach.

Isn't the early signing period a few days in length? I don't recall it being only one day. The NCAA website shows you the dead and quiet periods but doesn't show early signing.

11/12/2008 - 11/19/2008

All the early signs should be receiving/signing their NLI's this week, starting Wednesday. Congratulations to all, and please.... Smile for the camera!

Do most schools take pictures of this event?

I don't know about "most". Some schools do it to congratulate their players and to promote their teams.

In its first 13 years, our high school had only one Division I baseball signee. Year 14, a second one. Year 15, three at once in the November period. All got their papers and signed and returned them. Later the coach did a "re-enactment" as if they were signing them for the cameras. This being sort of a high water mark for the program, the coach felt it deserved some attention. (The fact that he was in the midst of raising a quarter-million dollars to build a new field may also have played a role in his decision. In any event, it didn't hurt.) The local weekly published the photo with a caption.

Later, our chief district rival, also with three signees, did the same!

I didn't notice other area schools doing it, whether they had one signee or more than one. Though many of them would, if they did it, be covered in weeklies I don't see.

Let's face it, HS baseball doesn't usually get a lot of headlines, so it was nice for the boys' successes to be brought to the attention of their classmates and neighbors.

We have alot of signees this coming Friday and the TV stations will be there and radio for interviews. They also do and there is a write up in the paper usually the next day. They do a decent job of coverage providing they are made aware of what is going on.

Friday is big day down here.

That sounds great! Up here, Friday will be just be another day in the week.

RRF - yea but you have way more up there than we do that makes up for any day we have a little fun down here, LOL....in fact my first stop Friday will be a little bar for lunch with some parents and in the bar you walk thru a line of stacked up beer boxes, it is wehre they store the beer. But the Cheeseburgers are great!

I am more than tempted to head down there and join you.

Anytime

Who's signing this week?