Recruits refusing to sign LOIs - a new trend?

JeffAtlanta

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How many can a kid sign? Can a kid sign with 4 schools and lock them all in while he decides?
I'm pretty sure a recruit can sign multiple - otherwise the financial aid agreement would bind the player to the school.

It should work the same as the financial aid agreements that many recruits are signing now before mid-year enrollment. A player can sign as many as he wants as they bind the school to the player, but not the player to the school.
 
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JeffAtlanta

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Great find. The bolded portion of the snippet below illustrates how the participants in this process are being naive.

UGASports.com: What have those conversations been like? How do these coaches feel about the idea of you signing the scholarship papers but not the letter-of-intent?

Smith: "They actually feel pretty okay about it. You know that if you really wanted somebody, you would let them do that. Most of them are saying that's fine to Coach Harold and that they don't mind."
Smith and his coach don't seem to grasp that building a recruiting class is like taking reservations for a hotel or an airline - there are only so many spots available. Programs may really want a player, but can't handle the risk of tying up a spot for a person that wants a non-binding reservation.
 

RTR91

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I'm pretty sure a recruit can sign multiple - otherwise the financial aid agreement would bind the player to the school.

It should work the same as the financial aid agreements that many recruits are signing now before mid-year enrollment. A player can sign as many as he wants as they bind the school to the player, but not the player to the school.
A player enrolling in January can only sign one financial aid agreement but can still enroll in whichever school he wants.
 

JeffAtlanta

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I believe Malone was the reason the rule was changed.
I may be mistaken, but from what I've found, the rule changed due to signing multiple agreements only clarified if all of the schools involved could operate under the relaxed recruiting rules or just the first one that the player signed the financial-aid agreement with.

I haven't been able to find anything about the rule being changed to disallow signing multiple financial-aid agreements, but I haven't been able to do a thorough search.
 

B1GTide

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I assume that those financial forms / scholarship offers include expiration dates - change that to, say, within say 24 hours of NSD. I would not allow a kid to play with me like this if I was trying to put together a recruiting class.

Fill out the financial aid forms, but if we don't get the LOI within x time, your offer expires.
 

JeffAtlanta

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From what I gather, the financial-aid agreements are for a specified academic term, so expiration dates wouldn't apply. The player either enrolls in school and claims it or lets it go unclaimed by enrolling somewhere else.

Below is a recent article from Rivals (Jan 16, 2015) on the subject of the financial-aid agreements and how it affects recruiting. It also discusses players that are signing agreements with multiple schools.

https://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1725534&PT=4&PR=2
 
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gtowntide

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I'm sorry but I'd tell this kid no thanks. There are too many kids who would give anything to have a scholarship to a D1 school. Sign the ROI like all your incoming teammates or go elsewhere.
 

CrimsonPride

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Just listened to interview that Roquan gave on ESPN where he stated that the fact that UCLA does not offer his major may help decide who he signs with. This cannot be a surprise to him. If his major was that important to him, UCLA should have never been a consideration. While I sympathize will the recruits whose coaches announced they were leaving for other jobs right after signing day, the fact that the major is being brought up now seems disingenuous to me.
 

B1GTide

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Just listened to interview that Roquan gave on ESPN where he stated that the fact that UCLA does not offer his major may help decide who he signs with. This cannot be a surprise to him. If his major was that important to him, UCLA should have never been a consideration. While I sympathize will the recruits whose coaches announced they were leaving for other jobs right after signing day, the fact that the major is being brought up now seems disingenuous to me.
I agree and didn't buy that for a second. He actually said that they lied to him, telling him that they have a business major that would be available to him as an undergraduate student. He now says that this isn't true - that they only have a business school for graduate students. Frankly, I doubt the validity of that statement, too. A quick search of their web site shows several business management and business economics programs.

The kid needs to shut up.
 

4Q Basket Case

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I understand why the recruit might want to ensure the school's head coach and his own position coach remain for at least his freshman year, and this is one way to do that.

Bush-league moves like Chris Rumph and tOSU running backs taking new jobs right after signing day mean the schools have brought this on themselves.

But it's a risky game of chicken, and only the very top tier of recruits can play. Unless the recruit is so talented that the school is willing to hold the spot open, there's a chance he could end up out in the cold, with no scholarship at all.

I also suspect an element of self-aggrandizement and ego-stroking on the part of this particular recruit.
 

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