Random question - We have some friends who have a 2016 LHP who just signed a NLI with a D2 school for FOOTBALL. As I understand it he is still working out and playing baseball and if all work out, would love to play in college. Questions is since he signed Football NLI with school A, what would happen if School B (lets say NCAA school as well) wanted him to play baseball? Would he need release, lose a year, be eligible to do so?
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He can ask the school he is currently signed with to release him from his NLI before he enrolls. Many schools have no issue releasing a kid from his NLI even if he just decides the school isn't for him, so releasing him to play a different sport should be no issue for them.
If School A doesn't release this athlete, and he chooses to enroll at School B anyway, he'll sit out from competition his first year and lose a year of eligibility.
Can he ask about playing baseball for the same school? There are some pretty good D2 baseball programs out there.
I would second that thought. Different schools/coaches have different thoughts on this. At some places, the football coach will nix the idea, as he'll want the player involved in spring activities, and he'll want him to spend spring focusing on academics. But if the football coach is open to it, lots of baseball coaches are willing to lose a guy from fall play if it means getting a stud player without losing even a fraction of his NCAA scholarship allotment or budget. I think the D2 limit is 9.0 equivalencies, which isn't a lot to deal with. Getting a kid who can play but who doesn't need any money is something most baseball coaches would pay a personal visit to the football coach to lobby for.
Great info thank you all. I will pass on and we will see how it plays out. Thank you!
Rick at Informed Athlete posted:If School A doesn't release this athlete, and he chooses to enroll at School B anyway, he'll sit out from competition his first year and lose a year of eligibility.
Rick, is this still true even if the schools aren't in the same classification? For example, if the player wants to play baseball at a D1 or D3, would he still have to sit out since his letter of intent was originally signed at a D2? Just curious if that makes any difference.
It will still be true at D1, since D1 and D2 both use the same National Letter of Intent document. The NLI won't impact a player going to D3, however, since there are no athletic scholarships at D3.
I have honestly never heard of a coach refuse to release a player from his NLI if he has good reason. Especially since the player wouldn't even compete in the same sport, I see no reason why a coach would force a player to come to his school for a sport he doesn't prefer or make him lose a year of eligibility if he chooses somewhere else.
