uh, recruited athletes at UCLA and UCB are signing NLOIs a year and often times more before the application cycle. They are not going through the regular process in any regard. Not sure where these written rules are being found or who actually follows them; but what is described above is nothing like the way things are done. I know plenty of athletes that are offered admission as juniors and even as sophomores. Verbal commitment between both till they sign the LOI. But in college sports, if a coach makes a verbal it is as good as gold, or that coach wouldn’t last long.