A staple of a once-was era of college football, the NLI era of football may be behind us at this rate. As conference leaders look to amend the language around a recruit signing with a respective college, what exactly is NLI? It’s simple, really, but don’t confuse it with it’s similarly-named NIL, which means something completely different.
NIL stands for name, image, and likeness, while NLI is the National Letter of Intent, an agreement between a recruit and a school.
What Is an NLI?
You may be familiar with the image of a star high school recruit sitting in front of a camera surrounded by school caps before the athlete puts one on and declares they are attending said college. It is a commitment to a school in front of the nation, but the commitment isn’t truly official until a document is signed.
A National Letter of Intent (NLI) is a legally binding agreement between a school and a prospective student-athlete that commits the player to a particular college. NLIs are used to make the commitment official between a school and a recruit and lock both parties into the deal.
MORE: Simulate the College Football Season with CFN’s College Football Playoff Predictor
Until an NLI is signed, the commitment by a recruit is only verbal and isn’t an official declaration to a school. The NLI only becomes official when it is signed by the student-athlete. Until that moment, athletes can still be actively recruited, and a school can also back out of the agreement.
The NLI program is managed by the NCAA, while the Collegiate Commissioners Association oversee the use of the program. The program started in 1964 and now has 652 schools across Division I and Division II signed up across collegiate sports.
The National Letter of Intent organization states, “All colleges and universities that participate in the NLI program agree to not recruit a prospective student-athlete once he or she signs an NLI with another college or university.”
That means once pen hits paper on the NLI contract, schools are “prohibited” from recruiting student-athletes.
AN NLI gives both the school and the recruit certainty that the relationship as the agreement comes with terms and conditions.
By signing the NLI, a recruit agrees to “attend the institution full-time for one academic year (two semesters or three quarters).” While the institution agrees to “provide athletics financial aid for one academic year (two semesters or three quarters).”
If either the recruit or the school breaks the legally binding contract, they are harshly punished. However, all of this may change if administrators have their way in 2024.
According to FOX’s Bryan Fischer, discussions around eliminating NLI in the era of the transfer portal have heated up during the offseason ahead of the 2024 season. While some elements of the NLI would stay in place, they would be amended into current athletic aid agreements at the university level.
The NLI itself would be eliminated as a program. This decision and further discussion will be upheld and decided upon by the conference commissioners at the major college athletic level.
College Football Network has you covered with the latest news and analysis, rankings, transfer portal information, top 10 returning players, the full college football season schedules, and much more!