November 9, 2023
by Mike McMahon/Staff Writer (@MikeMcMahonCHN)
The National Letter of Intent signing period for men’s and women’s hockey began on Thursday. Verbal commitments across the country will put their money where their mouth is — literally — as schools and players lock themselves into agreements and put their commitments on paper.
The NLI — separate from the NCAA — used to have an early signing period, which would last one week in November, and then an open period beginning in April. That has changed in 2018. Now, players may sign an NLI beginning today and lasting until Aug. 1, 2024 (for the 2024-25 season).
Basketball and football are the only sports to have an early signing period.
So, what is the NLI?
Effectively, it’s a contract locking in the player’s verbal commitment to a school and the school’s financial commitment to the player.
To really break it down to bare bones, it’s a one-year contract. The player agrees to attend the school for one season, and the school agrees to award that player an amount of athletic-based financial aid for one season. That’s all that’s promised. Players won’t sign new NLIs every season, but they will need to be notified by their school at the end of every season whether or not their athletic aid will be renewed.
NLI’s guarantee the offered scholarship for a period of one season.
The NLI closes the recruitment of the player who signs it. Once the NLI is signed, no other school is allowed to contact or recruit that player.
There used to be a “gentleman’s agreement” that ended a player’s recruitment at the verbal commitment, but some teams were ignoring that for years anyway. Now, it’s effectively dead. No one even brings it up, and I think coaches, for the most part, have stopped pretending that it ever existed.
Any incoming player who will receive athletic-based financial aid next season is eligible to sign an NLI. Not every player has to sign an NLI, but they’re eligible to sign one. If a player is recruited as a walk-on player and won’t receive aid next season, that player isn’t eligible to sign an NLI.
NLIs are typically signed by high school seniors, but they can be deferred if a player decides to play another year of junior hockey.
The NLI rule regarding coaching changes also just changed.
Before this year, players were not eligible to get a release from an NLI if…
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