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On Oct. 9 the NCAA released its decision to abolish the National Letter of Intent (NLI). Previously, athletes committed to schools to pursue their sports and would sign letters during their senior years to declare their commitments to their future universities and to confirm the universities’ commitments to them.
Xavier traditionally celebrated this milestone in a ceremony preceding a school day. The athlete would be invited on stage, sign the letter of intent, and family and friends would take pictures.
Because of this NCAA change, the Xavier athletic department no longer felt comfortable having students sign letters because this practice no longer reflected the system of the NCAA.
Vice principal of activities and athletic director Sister Lynn Winsor ‘61 said, “We are adapting to these significant changes regarding college athletics. We can not call it an NLI signing; it’s not that.”
One main theory behind this policy shift is the surge of the transfer portal.
In 2018, the NCAA transfer portal began to allow college athletes to leave one team and join another. Susan Contreras, director of athletics and scheduling, remarked that often athletes do this without their coaches’ knowledge.
Collegiate sports have become increasingly more competitive and political, leading to a number of collegiate athletes feeling the need to relocate.
Athletes transfer for reasons ranging from little playing time to unhappiness with the campus culture or education. The recent adjustments to the transfer portal allows an easier transition for these students in need of change.
Recently, this transfer portal has overridden the NLI contract and allowed for athletes to exit this contract within a much shorter period. This results in less commitment to one another from players, programs and coaches.
“With the new NCAA rules and open transfer portal, the letters of intent were limiting athletes to being able to reopen their college searches. These new edits make transferring more accessible,” said Cal Berkeley commit Annemarie O’Gara ‘25.
Izzy Lee ‘25, Babson commit, believes the end of the intent letters allows colleges to become their best athletically. “Athletes change over four years and coaches sign the athlete for who they are and how they performed during high school. If the athlete changes or loses motivation, that can be tricky.”
Although Lee is committed to a Division III school which never offered letter of intent contracts, she acknowledges how nerve-racking this can be for DI and DII players since they are no longer offered a binding four-year contract. However, she says this can offer schools and coaches more freedom and flexibility.
These new rules create an increased amount of pressure and competition among athletes. For example, a women’s soccer roster has 28 spots, but many schools have signed well over this limit. These programs now need to make cuts, and a majority of those cuts are coming from the young athletes of the college class of 2029.
These nine athletes are excited to commemorate their commitments, regardless of the absence of the traditional letter. Allyson Brown ‘25 will be playing Texas Christian University soccer; Jane Burkhardt ‘25 will be at the University of Texas at Dallas playing volleyball; Michal Cagungun ‘25 plans to attend Dartmouth to pursue soccer; Carrie Doss ‘25 will be at St. Martin’s playing golf; Genevieve George ‘25 is committed to San Jose State to swim; Izzy Lee ‘25 is committed to Babson to play soccer; Elle McCreery ‘25 will be at Dartmouth playing volleyball; Annemarie O’Gara ‘25 will attend the University of California at Berkeley to play volleyball and Lainey Swanson ‘25 has committed to Texas Christian University to play soccer.
Xavier will be hosting a Celebration of Commitment Ceremony to honor athletes planning to participate in NCAA sports next year.
Lee recalls celebrating previous athletes and is very excited for the rewarding moment. She stated that this ceremony feels as if her “childhood years of hard work have come to fruition.”
This story was originally published on XPress on November 14, 2024.