Verbal Commitment vs. NLI?
A student-athlete can make a verbal commitment at any point in their recruiting process once an offer has been made. A verbal commitment is not a guarantee and can be revoked at any time by the coach, and can be broken at any time by the student-athlete. A verbal commitment is often what a college coach will want a student-athlete to do in order to take the student-athlete off of the Recruiting market. The upside for a student-athlete in making a verbal commitment is that allows them to accept a spot in a class before someone else does.
Each sport has their own designated signing periods of when it is permissible to sign a National Letter of Intent. NLI’s are binding agreements and there are consequences for both parties if an NLI is broken by one side or the other.
NLI Resources link http://www.nationalletter.org/
Insert NLI Signing Period Graphic