Term-in-ology. College athletics is not immune to industry acronyms or opaque concepts that can throw off the scent. With that in mind, Term-in-ology seeks each week to educate our readers on key NCAA definitions, terms of art, and policies and procedures encapsulating modern-day college athletics. If you are connected in any way to higher education, the business of education, or simply a college sports fan---this weekly morsel can help you decode college sports.
Signing Periods
Wednesday of this week marked the beginning of the regular signing period for Division I (DI) and Division II (DII) football. DI football encompasses two subdivisions---Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) where teams can qualify for post-season bowl games and the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) where teams can qualify for an NCAA-managed postseason football championship tournament.
Historically, the signing period in February for DI and DII football schools was the pinnacle for football recruiting where prospects would announce where they would sign and attend, ESPN and other sports television would broadcast announcements, and "signing classes" would be sifted through and graded by all the pundits. However, an "early" signing period was added to the football recruiting calendar a few years ago which moved much of this hoopla to the holiday season. During this current academic year, the early signing period for football ran from December 18–20, 2019, and DI football schools did most of their signing of high school prospects right before the holidays.
This early signing window---which has been in existence for only a couple of years---allowed prospects to sign a National Letter of Intent (NLI) with their chosen institutions before the holidays, thereby finalizing their recruitment a bit earlier in their senior year for high school prospects. Theoretically, the early signing period was intended to help prospects put recruiting decisions to bed and focus on enjoying and maximizing their high school senior year (although December is not markedly earlier in the academic year). This additional, early signing period opportunity concurrently diffused the drama and volume of recruiting decisions that would usually occur during February’s regular signing period (although some big decisions by highly rated football prospects were still made this week!).
For prospects attending two-year institutions who plan to enroll at a DI or DII institution midyear, there is a concurrent December signing period for two-year college prospects which extends into mid-January. And many of those prospects are moving quickly--literally--because many are signing in mid December and then enrolling mid-year at their signing school in January.
NCAA member institutions, via their conferences, use the NLI program as the official contractual mechanism for DI and DII schools to administer letters of intent and scholarship agreements during these signing periods. Once a prospect signs an NLI, the signed agreement functionally concludes a prospect’s recruitment. Through the NLI form attached to an institution's athletics scholarship offer, a prospect can sign a “letter” formalizing his or her intent to enroll at a particular NCAA institution and, assuming the prospect's admission, enrollment, and NCAA eligibility are in order, the newly minted DI football student-athlete is assured in return an athletics scholarship from the university.
That’s the quick and dirty of the NLI mechanism. More on the NLI program another day.
For now, it is helpful to know there are different signing periods by NCAA sport throughout the year--- where schools can finalize the recruitment of prospects by memorializing a binding two-way, letter-of-intent scholarship agreement between the school and the prospect.
Below are the scholarship signing periods for all DI sports for 2019-20 signing year.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
