Pushing back against the NLI

twoinanddone
Wed, 18 Feb 2015 03:39:55 +0000

I guess it depends on what is required for the grant-in-aid. Does the student have to meet the need requirement? I know the amount would still count against the team scholarship total, but can the schools just award a ‘grant’ with no other requirements?

In our case, we could have waited until spring signing (and I would have preferred to because we didn’t have the merit aid offer in hand, and in fact she hadn’t been accepted yet, but I wasn’t worried about that, only the money to pay for it), and the coach said there would be the same offer in April as in Nov. My daughter also could have still gone to D3 even after signing. The NLI didn’t bother me that much. I actually agree with binding them for the one year even if the coach leaves, even if the coach signs 5 more outstanding catchers or the best running back in all of Texas so the athlete gets bumped down the line. Professional athletes aren’t always able to pick their coaches, they go where they are drafted. High school kids are rarely able to pick and most states have rules about a student following a club coach to another HS. I bet the kid who was supposed to go to Louisville wished he had the NLI to bind the school because he had nothing to bind the school, and the school, because I’m pretty sure that grant-in-aid could be withdrawn if the school decides it doesn’t really need Mr. Four Star.

My daughter’s first visit was with a school and coach who saw her play in a showcase. We really liked the coach, it was a D1 school, but DD just didn’t like the school so picked another school for academics. This fall we learned that this coach had had to leave the school with very little notice in late July. The asst coach moved up, but the she had to leave too, so a new coach came in in Sept. It happens, and I don’t think all the kids who had scholarships and agreed to play should get to leave in late August to follow the coach or go to a different school and bump someone else. This school has a D1 football team, so needs the many women’s teams to stay active and can’t just not field a team.

I think Mr. Four Star is an outlier, and I don’t think he would have been able to not sign the NLI at every school, nor do I think all the recruits at Georgia would get the same deal. If this kid jumps to another program by summer, I don’t think GA will offer it again either.