Recruits can now sign financial aid agreements on August 1 if early enrollees

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Hopefully it leads to a real ESP

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i haven't really given an early signing period much thought, why do you think it's a good thing?

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So, nothing has changed...They can commit like usual, but nothing binding till they sign in Feb, or am I wrong?

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This is a pretty huge change.

This is huge... I think.

my thought on it is based on my guess that:
if a student athlete receives aid from a school, through that school the NCAA will consider it a done deal and the transfer rules will apply. In effect, it's the result of a LOI.

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nothing binding till they sign in Feb, or am I wrong?

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It binds the school to actually give the kid a scholly. The school can't back out and and take away the scholarship if the kid gets hurt, for example. If a kid is an early enrollee, it's in his best interest to sign the financial aid agreement on August 1, before he might get hurt in his senior year.

What I want to know for sure is: can a kid sign these papers with more than one school? I think he can.

This came up in an article I read last year about another SEC school. The article said once the financial aid agreement was signed they couldn't take a scholarship at another school. It's a way to basically get an unbreakable commit from a player before national signing day so no risk of another school switching them at last minute.

Edit of above

I went back and found the article but it had to do with specifically signing a SEC financial aid form in addition to the other financial aid form and isn't one signed by a high school senior. So I was incorrect above. Here is part of that article though.

"There are three things commonly signed by prospective student-athletes headed to the SEC: A national letter of intent (which binds the PSA to a specific institution), a financial aid agreement with the specific institution (which binds the college to the PSA) and an SEC financial aid agreement (which is essentially a gentlemen’s agreement among conference schools).

More specifically, the SEC financial aid agreement is signed by the PSA and their legal guardian with an individual SEC school, and it immediately “ceases” other SEC members from “actively recruiting” the prospect.

It is common for high school seniors to sign all three documents each February. However, post-graduates or prep school players that enroll early at a four-year college usually sign only one — a financial aid agreement that is university-specific.

Under SEC rules, a high school senior enrolling early can only sign one document, the financial aid agreement with a specific institution. However, there’s a loophole for postgraduates."