NCAA Division III prospects have long felt shortchanged in not having an NCAA National Letter of Intent to sign. Forced to stand by as classmates and peers signed with Division I and Division II schools. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. Unfortunately, Division III prospects had\u00a0nothing showing they had officially committed to their school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt left out when the kids who had committed to D-I or D-II\u00a0received the attention and publicity on signing day while I stood in the crowd,\u201d said Audrey Hester, who played four years of lacrosse at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
NSR scouts were at a loss, too.<\/p>\n
Division III Prospects have a Commitment Letter to Sign<\/h2>\n
That changed when the NCAA voted to permit Division III prospects to sign “a standard, non-binding athletics celebratory signing form, which would be crafted by the NCAA and distributed to Division III schools so they can affix it to school letterhead and provide it to the student-athletes.”<\/p>\n
Additionally, some D-III coaches pushed to take\u00a0the measure\u00a0a step farther. They wanted it to be binding.<\/p>\n
According to an NCAA press release, “Marci Sanders, volleyball coach at the University of Texas at Dallas, said a binding document would save coaches valuable time. They wouldn\u2019t need to continue recruiting athletes who have committed amid constant worries that other programs might poach them.\u00a0\u00a0She said she has frequently been embarrassed to tell them that their only option besides signing a blank piece of paper\u00a0was to print and sign a document such as college admissions letters or academic scholarship offers, which are typically submitted by the student online.”<\/p>\n
But when the matter came to a vote before the division’s representatives, the legislation fell short of that ultimate mark.<\/p>\n
Steve Fritz, director of athletics at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), was slow to support the proposal by noting that the non-binding caveat had stayed in place. He eventually came around to accept the idea.<\/p>\n
“It ensures that academics, not athletics, govern Division III student-athletes\u2019 college choices,” Fritz said. “That’s why we added a rule that students cannot use the form until they have been accepted to attend the institution.”<\/p>\n
Only 1% of high school athletes will get the opportunity to play their sport at the NCAA Division 1 level.<\/strong>\u00a0NCAA D2 and D3 programs are outstanding options for athletes wanting to pursue their dream. NAIA and JUCO options are also wonderful opportunities for aspiring athletes. Parents and athletes who want to play college athletics and receive scholarships need to have a scout evaluate them. An NSR scout can provide that real evaluation needed to know the RIGHT fit.<\/strong> Click the button below to start your recruiting process today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NCAA Division III prospects have long felt shortchanged in not having an NCAA National Letter of Intent to sign. Forced to stand by as classmates and peers signed with Division I and Division II schools. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. Unfortunately, Division III prospects had\u00a0nothing showing they had officially committed to their school. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":12765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1299],"tags":[31,342,282,222,79,341],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8438"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15256,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8438\/revisions\/15256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}