If you are looking for the NLI form, there isn’t one to sign anymore. The NCAA ended the National Letter of Intent program in fall 2024, and the document that now locks in a scholarship commitment is a written offer of athletic aid that your recruiting school sends you directly. It still triggers a signing period, still stops other schools from recruiting you, and still needs your signature within a set window. What it no longer does is strip your eligibility if you change your mind.1NCAA. 2025-26 NCAA Signing Dates
What Replaced the NLI
For decades, signing day meant signing two documents: the NLI itself and a separate financial aid agreement. Refusing to attend after signing an NLI cost you a season of competition and a year in residence at your next school. That “basic penalty” is gone. Under the current system, the written offer of athletic aid is a single document that governs the commitment on its own, and current NCAA legislation does not impose eligibility consequences for declining to attend a school whose aid agreement you signed.
Signing periods still apply. Once your signed agreement is validated by the school’s conference office, every other program has to stop recruiting you. The commitment is real; the penalty structure behind it is lighter.
Before a School Can Send You an Aid Offer
Under NCAA Bylaw 13.9, an institution cannot issue a written offer of athletic aid until two things happen. You have to register with the NCAA Eligibility Center and appear on the school’s Institutional Request List, and you have to give the school a current transcript, official or unofficial, from your high school, college-prep school, or current college.2NCAA. NCAA Bylaw Article 13 – Recruiting
Registering with the Eligibility Center also produces your NCAA ID, which follows you through recruiting and eligibility. You set up the account at the Eligibility Center site and choose the account type that matches your status as a domestic high school student, an international prospect, or a transfer.3NCAA Eligibility Center. NCAA Eligibility Center
Signing Periods for 2025–26
You cannot sign before your sport’s initial signing date. Signing outside the window invalidates the agreement. The 2025–26 dates:1NCAA. 2025-26 NCAA Signing Dates
- Division I Basketball, early period: November 12–19, 2025.
- Division I Basketball, regular period: April 15, 2026, through a final date set by institutional policy.
- Division I Football, early period: December 3–5, 2025.
- Division I and II Football, regular period: February 4, 2026, through a final date set by institutional policy.
- All other Division I and II sports: November 12, 2025, through a final date set by institutional policy.
Four-year college transfers work differently. Signing dates do not apply. A transfer must first enter the NCAA Transfer Portal and can sign a written offer of athletic aid once coaches are permitted to communicate with them.
Signing the Agreement
The recruiting institution prepares the offer and sends it to you, usually through an electronic document platform. It sets out the specific aid being offered, covering some combination of tuition, fees, room, board, and other expenses, and identifies the academic year it applies to. There is no longer a separate NLI to sign alongside it.
You have seven calendar days from the issuance date to sign. The day after issuance counts as day one. Miss the window and the agreement expires; the school would have to reissue it if it still wants to. Before signing, check the academic year, the aid amount and what it covers, and your personal information. A correction means the school has to issue a new version, which costs time.
Parent or Guardian Signatures
The old NLI required a parent or legal guardian to co-sign for any athlete under 21. Current NCAA legislation does not carry that blanket rule for the athletic aid agreement. Whether a parent or guardian must sign now depends on your state’s contract law and the institution’s own policies.4NCAA. New NCAA Signing Model Questions and Answers
In practice, most institutions still want a parent or guardian signature for recruits under 18, because minors generally cannot enter binding contracts under state law. If you are 18 or older, the school may let you sign alone. Ask your recruiting coach or the compliance office. When a parent signature is required, both signatures have to fall within the same seven-day window, though not necessarily on the same date.
What Happens After You Sign
Once the signed agreement reaches the athletic department, the athletic director or a designated representative signs it, and the school forwards the completed document to its conference office for validation. The conference confirms it was signed in the proper window, during the correct signing period, with every required signature in place.5NCAA. National Letter of Intent Validation Process
Validation triggers the recruiting ban. Other schools must stop contacting you, and the ban holds until you enroll at the signing institution. You should receive confirmation from the school or the conference once validation is complete. If you have not heard anything within a couple of weeks, follow up with the compliance office.
If You Need to Back Out
Signing is still a real commitment, even without the old eligibility penalty. The school has set aside scholarship money for you. If you walk away, the institution can revoke or reduce the aid offer, and coaches talk to each other, so recruiting-market consequences are possible even where NCAA consequences are not.
The old NLI framework had a centralized release process, and the school could grant or deny the request. The current process for athletic aid agreements is governed more by institutional policy and the terms of the agreement itself. If you need out, contact the school’s compliance office right away and get in writing what steps are required to dissolve the commitment before you sign anywhere else.
If You Already Signed an NLI Before Fall 2024
NLIs signed before the program ended remain valid and enforceable for the terms they cover. An NLI signed in early fall 2024 for the 2024–25 academic year still governs that year’s commitment. Any future commitment, whether to the same school or a different one, falls under the new athletic aid agreement framework.