What do the new NLI signing periods mean for the prospect athlete?

Times, they are a changin'. And here are some of the changes high school coaches and athletes can expect from the new signing periods.

As if the new rules for compensating student-athletes were not enough for those of us in the world of cross country/track and field to think about, the National Letter of Intent signing period has changed for this year. Fortunately, it's probably a little easier to guess at what the impacts of the new signing period dates will be than to guess what will ultimately become of college track and field.

For those not yet aware, for the 2014-15 academic year, there will be an early track and field NLI signing period of November 12 - 19 and a regular signing period of April 15 - August 1. Let's discuss what some of the likely impacts of this new schedule will be.

For coaches who've been around a while and seen a few of their athletes sign National Letters of Intent, it's a well-known fact that college coaches tend to pursue top-tier athletes first and, once those are committed to their program (or not), parcel out their remaining available scholarship money later to athletes occupying lower rungs of the recruiting ladder. 

For the last several years, National Letters of Intent for track and field could not be signed until early February. This year, however, we revert back to a system where there is an early signing period in November and a regular signing period much later in the academic year.

Realistically, then, the early signing period will be focused exclusively on the top-tier kind of athletes. A one-week frenzy of headline-grabbing signings will take place in mid November, followed by an extended period of relative quiet until mid April.

The November date will put more emphasis on getting top-tier recruits into official visits during cross country season, and will likely diminish official visit opportunities for those without immediate-impact kind of status. Think of this as more attention, but focused on far fewer athletes, throughout the fall season than we've been accustomed to seeing over the last several years. And, since late October and early November is state championship season for cross country types, expect those official visits to be crammed into September and early October.

The late-developing stars of the cross country season are likely to be mostly overlooked for the purposes of the early signing period. If you don't already have an established reputation as one of the top runners in your state, it's highly likely you won't be hearing much from much of anyone until after the early signing period.

A large number of the top-tier recruits, however, will sign in November, allowing coaches of college programs to resurvey the landscape of available athletes and to establish a new set of recruiting targets for the regular signing period. But, with two major holiday breaks coming right after the early signing period, we likely won't see much recruiting activity happening after the November signing period until January.

A second, and more inclusive, round of official visits and other recruiting activity figures to take place in January, February, and March.

For the college-bound student-athlete, one unfortunate consequence of this is that, at least for those for whom athletic possibilities will help determine the choice of a school, the waiting period for that decision has been extended considerably. As college coaches work down their list of athletes to get signed beginning on April 15, it seems likely that many National Letters of Intent will not be available to sign until May and June. No doubt, recruiting coordinators will be pressing prospects for verbal commitments prior to April 15, but much will remain uncertain until the actual signings start taking place.

One consequence, and perhaps an unintended consequence, of this will be that schools with better indoor facilities stand to gain an advantage in the recruiting wars. If, as seems likely, the busiest period of official and non-official visits moves from fall to winter, a showcase-quality kind of indoor facility becomes a great deal more important for recruiting purposes.

For me as a coach, I'm going to wait longer to make contacts with college coaches about most athletes who might be interested in, and capable of, competing at the collegiate level. A 19-something cross country girl or a 16-something cross country boy is still a recruitable athlete, but I'm not at all sure any word I say about those athletes in September or early October is likely to get much attention. As a matter of fact, I'm going to ping a few of the college coaches I do know and ask where the best time to contact them about those kind of athletes falls on the calendar.

The athlete most benefitted by the new recruiting calendar is the one who enjoys a breakthrough senior track season. Formerly, if an athlete had his breakthrough in track of his senior year, very few schools would have any scholarship money left for such an athlete by the time those marks registered. But, with the second round of signings not even beginning until April 15, athletes have an opportunity to post a couple of senior season track and field marks that could actually impact their status as a recruitable athlete. For those athletes, the new schedule is good news.

On balance, however, the new calendar for signing periods means more waiting to hear from coaches/recruiting coordinators, more waiting to make the final college decisions (and more of the anxiety that goes with that), but probably less travel during the actual cross country season.