NCAA moves to ditch National Letters of Intent, shortens transfer windows in football and basketball

National Letters of Intent are going away.

The NCAA announced Wednesday that players will no longer sign an NLI when committing to a school. For decades, players have signed letters of intent during signing ceremonies at high schools across the country on National Signing Day. The NLI had been standard since 1964 and viewed as the binding agreement between schools and players. If a player wanted to go to a different school after signing an NLI, a school had to release him or her from the agreement.

Going forward, players will sign a written offer of athletics aid with their school of choice and other schools will be prohibited from recruiting players once the aid agreements are signed.

The move to eliminate the NLI comes as college athletics are in the midst of significant upheaval. The NCAA is close to a settlement in the House antitrust case as member schools could pay nearly $3 billion to former athletes who were unable to retain their image rights during their college careers. For current and future athletes, the idea of schools sharing revenue with their players is becoming closer and closer to a reality. Currently, schools cannot pay players directly and players make money on their image rights through sponsorships and endorsements with donor collectives and other businesses.

Transfer windows shortened

The transfer windows in the three biggest college sports are now 30 days instead of 45.

The NCAA also announced that the transfer windows in football and both men’s and women’s basketball would be shortened by 15 days. This season, the transfer window will be open from March 24-April 22 in men’s basketball and would open and close a day later for women’s basketball.

There will still be two transfer windows in football. Players will be able to transfer from Dec. 9 through Dec. 28 after the conclusion of the regular season and again from April 16 through April 25 after spring practice.

The winter transfer window has been a source of consternation in college football since its implementation given the timing of bowl games. Many players who want to enroll at a new school in time for the second semester need to enter the portal before their team’s bowl games. A season ago, Texas backup QB Maalik Murphy — now at Duke — entered the portal before the College Football Playoff because of the timing of the transfer window. Murphy started multiple games for the Longhorns during the 2023 regular season because of Quinn Ewers’ shoulder injury.