Verbal Abuse

Your word may be important to you, and your family, and your teammates, but not to the NCAA.  A student-athlete’s verbal pledge to a college coach prior to the signing period carries no weight with the NCAA. Until the student-athlete signs his National Letter of Intent, he has the right to change his mind as many times as he wants. Though fairly uncommon, it does happen that a student-athlete signs his NLI with an institution where he was not previously verbally committed. Even rarer, an institution can accept a verbal pledge from an interested student-athlete and then offer his spot to another athlete during the signing period.