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The NCAA Division I Council has approved the elimination of the National Letter of Intent (NLI) program effective immediately.
The Council approved the removal of the program on Wednesday morning and the decision will become final once meetings conclude later today.
DI Council approves transition of National Letter of Intent program into NCAA signing and recruiting rules, effective immediately.
Council decisions are not final until meeting concludes later today.
— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) October 9, 2024
The NLI program has been the binding agreement between student-athletes and institutions for the last 60 years, but the D1 Council is transitioning away from it due to the pending changes coming from the NCAA v. House settlement that is expected to take effect next year.
The House settlement will allow schools to pay student-athletes $20-23 million annually, which has led the NCAA to rethink its amateurism rules.
The core recruiting rules that surrounded the NLI program will still be commonplace, but the NLI document itself will be no more.
Instead, written aid offers, such as financial aid and scholarship agreements, are expected to be used. This is expected to streamline the recruiting process and increase flexibility for student-athletes.
— 👁🌳SycamoreRules🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@SycamoreRules) October 9, 2024
Previously, when a prospective student-athlete signed an NLI, they committed to attending that specific school for at least one academic year. Signing an NLI also meant that other schools could no longer actively recruit the student-athlete without penalty. If they transferred, they were required to sit out one semester, though that rule was recently lifted.
The NLI program was overseen by the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA), which has reportedly been pushing for change in recent months and met in September to discuss eliminating it.
Once the dust settles from the NCAA v. House settlement, with the final hearing scheduled for April 2025, a new binding document between a school and student-athlete will need to be created with the introduction of the new revenue-sharing model.
