New NCAA NLI signing period
NCAA eliminates early and regular signing periods in sports outside basketball, football

Aug. 16, 2018

By Jason Lauren
ScoutU

Without any talks of any possible changes with the NCAA National Letter Intent signing period, the NCAA suddenly eliminated the early and regular signing periods for sports besides basketball and football and there now is just one long signing period.

Most sports used to have an early signing period for 1 week in mid-November and then a regular signing period that started in mid-April and ended Aug. 1. Now, the signing period for the 2018-19 school year is now Nov. 14, 2018 to Aug. 1, 2019.

What are the effects of this change? Now athletes won’t feel as much pressure to sign with a school they are unsure of in the short early singing period without knowing what would happen between the early and regular signing period. That 1-week window to sign in November put some athletes in a tough position — either sign with a school they are unsure of to make sure they sign with a school or keep their recruiting open without having any idea what would happen between November and April.

A couple reminders regarding the NLI signing periods:

  • ONLY NCAA Division I and Division II athletes who are receiving athletic scholarship money sign an NLI.
  • NCAA Division I and II athletes who are walk-ons with no athletic scholarship money do NOT sign an NLI.
  • There is no NLI for NCAA Division III schools. However, DIII schools offer a non-binding celebratory form athletes can sign.
  • NAIA does not have specific windows for their athletes to sign and are not a part of the NLI program. NAIA athletes can sign at anytime with a school.

For more information on the NCAA NLI, click on this link: NATIONAL LETTER OF INTENT

For more information on how signings work in the NAIA, click on this link: NAIA SIGNINGS

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