Florida's New Recruiting Method to Get Around the FA Agreement Problems

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Florida’s new recruiting strategy eliminates need for financial aid agreements

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The Gators signed wide receiver Isaiah Johnson and seven other mid-year recruits to written offers of admission instead of financial aid agreements.

With this method, Johnson’s recent decision to de-commit will not result in NCAA sanctions for UF, as it did with LSU in February.

As discovered by Florida’s compliance office, the NCAA’s Michelle Hosick explained to SEC Country that if a recruit signs only a written offer of admission and not a financial aid agreement, a school is not in violation of NCAA rules should that recruit decide to enroll elsewhere.

But when a financial aid agreement alone is signed and its benefits are acted upon, the school has committed a recruiting violation if that mid-year signee fails to enroll. This happened to LSU with offensive lineman Matt Womack during the 2015 cycle.

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Both provide the same benefits, among others, to the school and mid-year enrollee:

- Dead periods no longer apply after a financial aid agreement, written offer of admission or letter of intent has been signed.
- Phone calls restrictions are lifted.
- Publicity restrictions lifted.
- Changes allowable timing for official and unofficial visits.
- Coaches still can’t make in-person, off-campus contact between the April 15-May 31 evaluation period, even if one of the three documents has been signed.

The biggest — and essentially the only — difference between a financial aid agreement and written offer of admission is that one can lead to an NCAA violation and the other can’t.

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