The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/213966
michigan recruiting Seven Set To Enroll Early M ichigan's coaching staff has brought in multiple members of its recruiting class as January mid-term enrollees over the past few years. Although defensive back Gregg Brown was the only such player in the 2011 class (and he departed the program before ever playing for the Maize and Blue), the 2012 class featured three early enrollees, and six players came in early for the 2013 class. That trend will continue in the 2014 group, though the rules for their paperwork make the experience slightly different. Whereas previous classes' early enrollees had to wait until they were in Ann Arbor to put pen to ink on their scholarship papers in January, this year's group was the first affected by a new NCAA rule interpretation that allowed them to sign as early as August. "The academic and membership affairs staff determined that a prospective student-athlete who intends to graduate from high school midyear and enroll at a member institution midyear during the same academic year (e.g., spring semester) may sign an institutional financial aid agreement on or after August 1 of his or her senior year," the rule interpretation reads, "provided the institution issuing the financial aid agreement establishes, prior to issuing the agreement, that the prospective student-athlete is enrolled in all Grand Rapids (Mich.) Christian four-star wide receiver Drake Harris, who has missed his senior season with a hamstring injury, plans to start attending Michigan in January. photo courtesy rivals.com coursework necessary to graduate from high school at midyear." Although the scholarship agreement paperwork is not binding for the players — they could still opt to change their minds up to the day they enroll in school — it is binding for the institution, guaranteeing each of the signees a place at the university. It also removes contact restrictions from the coaching staff, allowing them to have unlimited phone calls and text messages with their future players. It also allows them to publicly discuss the signings. While this change isn't a magic bullet for fixing all that ails the National Letter of Intent process, it's a step in the right direction says Bylaw Blog's John Infante. "With the rising number of early enrollees and the push for an earlier