"If they don`t sign a national statement of intent, they can be a free agent with guaranteed money," Toliver said. The average or slightly above-average sportsman, who takes this risk and does not sign a national declaration of intent, could find himself without offers and nowhere to play. The terms of the letter intent are maintained when a player leaves the team or when a player never registers at the school where he signed. The financial agreement also gives the athlete the opportunity to see what might open up. If an excellent basketball goalie points his heart to Kentucky, but Kentucky didn`t offer a scholarship at first, he couldn`t sign a letter of national intent to go. Well, if the Kentucky rookie gets down on his knees in a pick-up game or in his baseball year, Kentucky could call. In the meantime, Point Guard could have already signed financial agreements with Duke, North Carolina, Oregon and Syracuse... And leave them all. An athlete can still only sign a national memorandum of understanding. If he wanted to and had the offers, the athlete could sign an unlimited number of financial aid agreements and then always choose which school he wanted to go to.
The National Memorandum of Understanding: first of all, the NLI is not a scholarship. The NLI is an agreement that keeps the entire recruit and school, but in different abilities. The student, after signing an NLI, accepts a one-year commitment with the school with which they sign. After signing an NLI, they agree to end their attitude and cannot talk to other coaches or schools. The penalty for a student who violates the NLI agreement is the withholding of a one-year participation season and a one-year residency requirement and his second institution if he chooses to play elsewhere. The school, after signing and processing an NLI, is required to provide an athletic scholarship to the athlete for at least one year, provided that the student meets the academic requirements to go to school and the school is able to honor the scholarship without going to a maximum of 85 scholarships. The particularities of the scholarship vary according to the sport and the division, but for football D-1, it is a complete scholarship. Coaches are required to have a Plan B if their top athlete does not sign a national letter of intent and signs the financial letter.
"If they`re not sure who the coach will be, that`s a good reason," Toliver said. "If they have financial support from this school, this school and this school, they don`t need to go to school where they`re not sure about the coach." Some elite high school athletes do not sign a national statement of intent.
