On October 9, 2024, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) made the decision to remove the National Letter of Intent (NLI), a binding agreement between a student athlete and an NLI member institute that outlines the terms of a scholarship coupled with an athlete’s commitment to the college.
While this decision has had some benefits, the removal of the NLI poses a serious issue and a major disappointment for numerous high school athletes who were already committed to a college and lost their roster spot or scholarship opportunity. We can see this problem affecting many of our athletes at Lincoln East High School including senior and swimmer, Jadeon Carter.
“Previously, in April of 2024, I committed to the University of Missouri to swim,” Carter said. “But when the NCAA lawsuit happened, I heard that I was not guaranteed a roster spot on the Missouri swim and dive team. I was somewhat disappointed at first, but then I started looking for other colleges who were wanting me more. I finally ended up choosing to go to the University of [Nebraska] – Omaha.”
The NCAA faced a lawsuit which raised concerns over the fairness of the NLI along with the idea that colleges tend to prefer athletes with better NIL or name, image, and likeness in order to gain a profit. This in turn led to a reduction of roster sizes and scholarship opportunities resulting in colleges not being able to guarantee everyone who signed to their school a spot on the roster. While this poses a great problem for many students who were previously committed to a college, it can also have some benefits.
“I feel like there were both good and bad things with the removal of the National Letter of Intent,” assistant athletics director at Lincoln East, Joe Schlegelmilch, said. “This gives students more time to make a decision for college and not try to hurry and make a choice by signing day. It also allows for students to change the college they want to go to and not feel like they’re forced to go to this one college. However, it can also be a bad thing with roster sizes being reduced and kids that have already made their decision having to change it.”
While this year’s seniors are dismayed by the removal of the NLI as it affected multiple scholarship opportunities and benefits, the impact this will have on future athletes could go either way.
“In terms of affecting future athletes there remains a lot to be seen,” Schlegelmilch said. “There are both positives and negatives to this decision but we still hope to recognize our talented athletes by having a day to honor our senior athletes, even if it isn’t an official signing day. However, there’s still a lot more to be discussed over this topic of the removal of the NLI.”
While the long-term impacts of the NLI removal are still to be seen, it is clear that it has had immediate effects on athletes at Lincoln East. As commitment decisions continue to roll in from student-athletes and signing day approaches, remember that high school athletes are no longer able to sign legally binding contracts to play college sports.
