The NLI was only ever a commitment to PLAY at that school for one year, and the student was always free to apply to and go to another school, but couldn’t play for that second school (if that school was also an NLI program, so D1 or D2) for at least one year. I don’t think the NAIA schools had NLI or that a student couldn’t switch from NCAA to NAIA or vice versa.
Now there are so many exceptions to the transfer rules that (IMO) the NLI doesn’t have the power it once had. Even after my daughter signed her NLI (2013), Div 3 schools were still recruiting her and telling her not to worry about the NLI, that she could still play for them without penalty (and of course without the athletic scholarship).
Signing an NLI does not guarantee playing time, or even a roster spot. Most of the time an NLI athlete is rostered but not always…things happen.
I agree those who sign an NLI have restricted movement, if they aren’t released from the NLI. NAIA, D3, and JUCO are always options if not released from the NLI.
No, and NLI wasn’t a guarantee of playing time or making the roster, but it restricted the athlete from being on another NCAA team that also had NLI. A player couldn’t sign a NLI to play for Michigan and then transfer to Arizona and play immediately. He can go to Arizona, just couldn’t play for the team for 1 year) The NLI contract wasn’t released very often in the ‘olden days’ (way back to 2015 or so) so it really was a penalty to have to wait for a year to accept another scholarship or play or even practice with another school, but in the last few years, since the transfer portals, releases are much more common.
I know more than a handful of kids who had verbal commitments change their minds even after being admitted to a school but either no NLI was signed or one wasn’t required (Ivy league, service academy) or a kid who did take the slot and was admitted but decided not to play (Gtwn).
They are kids. They change their minds.
At my daughter’s school, a girl wasn’t admitted. I don’t know if she’d already signed the NLI or if the denial of admission was done as a pre-read (she’d been on the recruit list for more than a year). Either way, she was free to sign with another school (and she did).
I wasn’t so much thinking about comparing options for schools where my kid could play.
I’m starting the process of looking at schools for my athlete’s older sibling, and I think financial aid will be super confusing for us, because of a complicated custody situation.
I’m imagining my kid might be a strong athletic candidate for D3. I’m not saying that’s what I expect, but when I ask this question, that’s what I’m asking. I have no idea how the financial aid package for a D3 might compare to the financial aid package at our state flagship, where he might not be good enough to play at all, or at a school with strong merit and no team for his sport. I would very much like for my kids to graduate without debt, but I don’t know if that’s realistic. So, I don’t feel like I can just say “Here’s what we can afford”.
Right now, he says he wants to play, but does he want to play badly enough to pay an extra $5K? An extra $10K? To take out loans?
Ironically, his sibling is the opposite. It’s possible he’d be recruitable at D3, but at this point he says he doesn’t want to compete in college. But if it would get him into a school that meets full need, that otherwise would be a reach? He might consider that.
My daughter made it clear early on to schools what our family max COA was. If a coach or school could match that then they remained in the conversation, if not they were removed. Once you get further along in the recruiting process you will be able to have those conversations and we found most coaches to be very up front and honest about available funds and likely COA regardless of division
You might have to make a decision on recruiting at D3 schools without knowing scholarship specifics at your state flagship, yes. Although some state flagships will tell you very early, have transparent merit aid based on clear criteria, or don’t give much if any merit aid. If it’s competitive scholarships you have in mind, yes you might need to decide whether or not to commit to Williams before knowing what net cost at State U would have been.
And what I am asking is, if he decides not to commit to Williams because he wants to explore merit at the flagship, does that mean he likely won’t get to play, even if he gets in on his own merit to a school
where he probably could have gotten support if he had been willing to take it.
(Just using Williams as an example because you used it)
He is presumably a good athlete. Most D3 coaches still depend on a certain amount of walk ons to round out their team. Unless he burned bridges I can’t imagine a coach wouldn’t be happy to have him.
I think it’s so situational that a general answer won’t help much. But I think if that time comes you’ll have a very good sense of the landscape of options, as well as the recruit’s preference to play or not, and it won’t be a as tough a decision as it seems now.
Drilling down a bit, if it’s my example of Williams it’s highly unlikely a recruit who turns down coach support is then admitted without it. In the unlikely event that happens, it’s possible but not certain the kid would be able to play.
And if it’s a (higher admit rate) school where the possibility of that scenario is high, then probably there will have been a discussion with the coach, who might extend support into RD anyway, or who might not even have a structure to do that given admit rates are high, but might be willing to hold a spot on the team.
In a sport like Track I’d say there’s not much question the recruit could walk on. If hoops and the coach went out and recruited three other point guards, not sure.
If he’s good enough to play at your state school, which I assume is a D1 school, then he might qualify for an athletic scholarship there (even if it is a partial one), and then the state school might also give him a financial preread. It’s not a perfect situation but it isn’t as grim as knowing nothing about the state school’s financials. If he’s not being recruited to the state school but you still want to compare a merit offer, you can explain that to the D3 coach. That’s the type of stuff they are willing to work with you on, but they want you to WORK on it and not just say “well, we want to see what State U has to offer so we’ll get back to you in April.” I don’t think they can wait that long.
My daughter could not have played at our flagship (the team was ranked 4th in the nation at the time) so she looked at other D1s in the state and at a lot of D2 schools. She was recruited to a bunch of D3s and they would have discussed merit but she decided pretty early that she was not interested in small LACs as she wanted engineering.
By the time she was going to commit, we had the athletic offer and a pretty good idea of what the merit aid would be at that school and any others still on her list. She knew she’d have Bright Futures she could use at any Florida school. There was some financial risk in committing but we had a pretty good idea of what it would cost. If the merit didn’t come through, she would have taken a gap year.
We could have kept negotiating with other schools, mostly D2s, but she found what she wanted. There is a point where you do just have to take the leap. It’s not unheard of for state schools to have their merit awards out by the ED deadline, especially if the merit is ‘guaranteed’ because of test scores and gpa, or that a coach would know what is ‘typical’. My other kid was in that situation and we just figured out what her merit would be by the chart.
I think you’ll know a lot more about the financials at schools by Oct or Nov of senior year for the athlete. You may learn more about your FA package (because of the complicated divorce arrangement) if the older sibling also applies to the state school and a few private schools. You do learn a lot about FA for the first kid. Unfortunately for me, I learned a lot but my kids went to school the same year, so if I’d had another kid I could have used all that knowledge!
I have no idea what he will be good enough for. Our state school is a Big 10, so that seems like a huge reach athletically, and an entirely different financial conversation.
But if he applies without that, then our flagship doesn’t announce their bigger merit awards till spring.
If it is a Big 10 flagship, there are probably a number of other schools in the state system that are also D1 schools (unless you live in Nebraska). Honestly, depending on the sport, if he’s already a sophomore he (and his coaches) probably do know if he’s good enough for a top ranked team by now. As I said, we knew my daughter wasn’t good enough (or nearly big enough) for the UF team when she was a 5’1", 110 pound sophomore, but she did have interest from other D1 schools (not ranked anywhere near as high as UF’s team) and lots of interest from D2 and D3 schools.
As far as merit goes, it might not be announced until the spring but you may know your chances are good or not good. If a small D3 coach is making an offer (usually just need based aid but sometimes some merit) you’ll have to make a decision that the offer is good for your son and family financials and may not get to compare to a state merit offer without athletics.
We did know in Nov about what daughter would receive at flagship without playing a sport (just the normal academic merit awards, other need based aid, any local scholarship possibilities) and could compare that with the offers from private schools. Not perfect, but a good estimate.
Agreed! Head count sports like football and basketball are very different than equivalency sports like xctf or swimming. It would also help to know what types of schools he is interested in as elite admissions schools(Ivys, NESCAC, MIT, JHU to name a few) are different in terms of getting coach support through ED admissions.
I would recommend against ED if you’re expecting an athletic scholarship. Sometimes those “non-compete” contracts can get pretty draconian, and can potentially put a scholarship at risk. I would just apply during regular admission where you have nothing to lose. In my opinion, a full ride scholarship is far better than an acceptance you have to pay for. Just keep that in mind. There’s not much advantage in going for ED anyway. If you get accepted, you’re stuck there and you’re not allowed to shop around.
Fyi a bunch of big state flagships do not have men’s soccer teams, so you can throw that into the mix.
OP is the parent of a middle school soccer player, who believes in being super prepared :-). (Fyi, so did I though I waited until the early high school years)
This isn’t really true at some schools. At highly selective schools, coaches will support you with admissions if you apply ED. Most athletes apply ED or SCEA at these schools. If you decide to go RD, they may or may not support you.
this is not exactly the truth - often coach support through admissions is a huge deal and only offered with ED so OP needs to clarify if the coach is offering support and if that support will be there in RD. Also at highly selective schools coach support is extremely valuable. Many athletes are made aware of their potential merit awards and financial aid awards prior to committing to ED, so the process is a bit different for athletes at those type of schools.
Additionally, if an athletic scholarship is at play then a coach and athlete would expect to sign a NLI and that would be a “non compete” contract.
My son was interested in playing at a D3 school (not at D1 level) and was targeting a wide range of likely to heavy reach LACs. He decided that the school came first - not the sport - but still reached out to coaches at the schools he planned to apply to.
He ended up having coach conversations with about half of the schools after he set his list - a couple asked if he would change his mind and ED, when he said no they confirmed there was no sway with admissions during RD - another few said to connect back if he got in RD.
After decisions came out he had extended conversations with a number of coaches that resulted in 3 visits and a D3 offer. He ended up choosing a school (for academic reasons) that had filled their recruiting class already so he turned down the offer and halted the remaining conversations to go to his reach school.
After reading all of the recruiting threads on here I was surprised by the interest so late in the game but it is difficult to know how the recruiting classes are shaping up and what needs the team might still have. Best of luck as you navigate this somewhat confusing journey!