^^ In fact, it will be more important to go to the college camps, to the showcase tournaments (which in girls lax are run by the college coaches’ association), to play on those very expensive club teams. You can’t talk to the coaches and they can’t talk to you, but you sure can go to camps and they can watch you. They can watch videos (and every game at every showcase is filmed) and you can continue to send things to the coaches. There isn’t a rule about the recruits posting things on websites or sending things to coaches, but the coaches can’t respond. The recruits aren’t prohibited from tooting their own greatness on websites or at tournaments.
@SevenDad best practices would be NLI = ok to advertise commitment at verbal stage, better IMO at the national signing day. LL = ok to advertise to inner circle (not social media) when you get it, better if can be included in the signing day ceremony at the HS since it’s really just a ceremonial/congratulatory kind of thing. Everyone knows NLI and a LL is an announcement of a two-way commitment between the college and student athlete. Not “official” until the acceptance letter is in hand.
Think of the NFL or NBA draft. How many kids get up on that stage, shake hands with a team then you find out later they end up on another team? Not “official” until signed contract is in hand.
- in the case of a LL, I would advise to consult the college coach if it's ok to participate in the HS National Signing Day ceremony
Again, and I am talking D3 here, what are you relying on that says that you are a recruit going to attend that D3 school? You have an email or phone call from the coach saying that you passed the pre-read, but that the pre-read is not a guarantee of admission. You have the league saying that this is unofficial, preliminary and subject to change. To me, that is entirely different than receiving a likely letter or NLI. I do think it is a bit unfair to others to walk around crowing that you have the inside track on being admitted to Amherst, but that would not be my primary concern. I would want to protect my kid. It would be hard enough for my kid to learn that he or she was rejected by Amherst, it would be far worse for to look in the eye all those folks he or she told he was going to Amherst and have to explain it.
As far as ego goes, I get it. People on your club team say “I am going to ________, where are you going?” I think it is fine to say, “I am looking at Amherst.”
with regards to @CALSmom post, I would agree but with just one addendum. Yes, the LL is an announcement between the college and the student athlete. But unlike the NLI, the LL has much more weight and significance. Since it is a letter from the admissions committee stating that they have “voted to admit you to the class of 2022” and that “the acceptance letter will be sent on December 12”. Therefore, in practical terms it is an acceptance letter.
Thanks again all…
CALSmom’s post #21 and gointhruaphase’s post #22 (last sentence) was the type of guidance I was looking for when I started this thread…should have clarified in OP that my questions were framed around HS seniors. Didn’t mean to start yet another discussion about early early commits and watch lists.
@noanswers: Your post #23 assumes that there is no expedited official admissions read running in parallel with NLI process.
Isn’t the NLI a binding contract between the school and the athlete? I believe it is the opposite, the NLI is stronger than the LL. The school can release the athlete from the NLI but cannot rescind the agreement once it is signed. And vice versa BTW. The athlete must attend the school for a year under the terms of the NLI once it is signed, barring the school releasing the athlete. A LL can be withdrawn for any reason, although I believe they rarely are unless for good cause.
I agree with @twoinanddone; the current lax recruiting landscape means that clubs and tournaments will get revenue through 1-2 more seasons vs. the past. Look at the 2018 pools vs the 2019 pools at the IWLCA events. In past years, junior teams were pretty light and many of the top clubs either didn’t attend (whole team already recruited), or had a makeshift team. It looks like that effect has been pushed back a bit.
If you want to be recruited in lacrosse, my advice is to do the same activities at the same time as was done before the rules change. Being on the short list of your target coaches is the most important thing and I don’t think that process has slowed down at all.
FWIW, when I was asked about my D’s commitment, I always made sure to say something like: “I am not buying or putting on any bumper stickers until the acceptance letter arrives.”
Bobcat, LL is pretty much an admissions letter from the AO. The only way it can be rescinded is if the athlete does something to jeopardize it like grade slip, unbecoming behavior, etc
They do it for athletes so they can know they are admitted and do not need to have any backups for recruiting…essentially they can relax and enjoy senior year
The NLI is binding, but not an admissions letter like the LL . An athlete can sign then find out that admissions denied them thus making it null and void
Here’s a sample
http://www.athleticscholarships.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/National-Letter-of-Intent-Example.pdf
I personally don’t see a difference between a NLI and a LL as far as admissions decisions. Every kid I know who has signed a NLI was admitted under a system where the athletic office made the admissions decision, and every kid I know who signed a LL (admittedly many fewer) were admitted to the school and ultimately attended. As I think I said on another thread, in several years of following this stuff, I have only heard of two LL recipients who had their admissions decision rescinded. One for cheating and one for an arrest IIRC.
And to my understanding a student who signs a NLI is not required to attend that school for a year. What the NLI means is the student has agreed to trade a year of his/her eligibility at a particular school in exchange for financial assistance. But the student can always decide to attend a school in a lower division and not lose their eligibility. It is not uncommon in my experience for kids to sign D2 NLIs and then decide to attend a D3 school sometime in the spring because they got a better financial package/felt it was a more desirable school.
As far as the original topic of the thread, I agree that the issues in D3 are much different than the issues in the Ivy/D1. Most of the kids I know who play/played in D3 don’t say anything until the spring, whether that is because of the lack of certitude in the admissions process in the really high academic D3s, or the fact that most of the D3 kids I know were hoping for higher division offers and didn’t decide on the D3 route until late.
Most of the kids I know playing D3 announced their verbal commitment on or around early July before senior year because they had passed the pre-read. A very few waited until they were admitted in December. All applied ED, and all were accepted at the school to which they verbally committed in July. This is a small sample of about a dozen kids.
@turnandrake, I know this is done, and I don’t mean to criticize those who make a public announcement. It is just my personal view that announcing a commitment at the D3 level has no particular value (other than bragging rights) and, by way of example, at Middlebury it could have a downside. I can’t imagine how a kid would feel after announcing the commitment to have the Middlebury admissions committee tell him that he or should retract the announcement.
@Ohiodad51, you are correct about switching divisions and eligibility. This supports my point that a LL does not prohibit you from going to another D1 school and playing there as a freshman. That doesn’t happen with a NLI if you don’t get released by the school. But I agree they amount to the same thing, just the Ivy League can’t give financial support so they need the LL to supplant the NLI.
No, you can sign a NLI and still play in a lower division. You need a release to play in the same or higher division without losing eligibility
Sorry, that was what I meant.
I think there is a very significant difference between the NLI and LL. LL is a letter of reassurance from an Ivy admissions committee that they have decided to admit them to the next years freshman class. NLI which is from a non-Ivy school that is a binding contract between the coach/school and the athlete, without a guarantee of admission, since the ultimate decision to admit is on the AO.
As to @SevenDad question, I think that the NLI recipient certainly has the strong support of the coach influence in getting the athlete recruited with almost certain surety. But LL is the equivalent of an actual acceptance letter, but the NLI is only an agreement of commitment between the athlete and the school/coach.
The NLI is between the school and the athlete; the coach is not party to the contract. If the coach who was in place when the NLI was signed leaves, the contract is still in force.
And I think the NLI is the equivalent of an actual acceptance letter as well, at least in effect.
I think the NLI is more of a financial agreement and certainly not an acceptance. The student still will have to submit an application to admissions and wait for their decision.
I tend to agree with BobcatPhoenix’s point in post #36, especially for athletes who have had pre-read green light.
Without hard numbers to show how many applicants were denied admission after LL or NLI (especially in non-revenue sports), the debate is moot. I’d guess that there is equal anecdotal evidence for kids for whom LL or NLI did not translate into admit — and that the numbers in any case are very low.
@noanswers, do not recipients of a LL have to submit an application and wait for a decision as well? This conversation is getting tedious but if it makes you feel better to draw these meaningless distinctions have at it.