I'm cc'ing this reply to Michael to HOCKEY-L since it appears we have a resolution of this question. At 8:12 PM -0400 9/3/96, [log in to unmask] wrote: > Okay, here it is, taken from "College Sports, Inc.", opening chapter 25: > > 'Buried deep within the NCAA Manual - Section 4, Part (C), Subheading 2, > Clause (F) - is a key item in the athletic scholarship agreement: "The > renewal of a scholarship or grant-in-aid award shall be made on or before > July 1 prior to the academic year it is to be effective. The institution > shall promptly notify each student-athlete . . . whether the grant has been > renewed or not renewed."' I did find that 15.3 deals with this topic. It does say that you can't award aid for more than one year when athletic ability factors into the award. (15.3.3.1) It also says that a staff member can tell a prospect he/she will recommend that aid be renewed for 4 years and "indicate that the authority always has followed the athletics department's recommendations in the past. However, the prospect must be informed that the renewal will not be automatic." (15.3.3.1.1) 15.3.4 details when you can and cannot reduce/cancel such aid "during the period of the award." You can't do it on the basis of athletic ability or contribution to the team, injury, etc. You can do it if the SA voluntarily withdraws from his sport (but you cannot award the aid to another SA during the same term), is ineligible, commits fraud on his application/LOI/financial aid agreement, or "engages in serious misconduct warranting substantial disciplinary penalty." (15.3.4.1(c)) The key here does seem to be that the NCAA only allows athletic-related aid to be awarded for up to one year at a time, under 15.3.3.1. BTW, 15.3.5.1 contains the quote from the paragraph above. The ... basically says "in writing each SA receiving an award the previous year and w/ eligibility remaining". So, it does appear that if you sign a LOI for 4 years and don't make the team, the next year they can give your athletic scholarship to someone else. But they can't take it away that first year. Thanks to Michael for giving me a pointer to being able to figure out exactly where this topic is covered in the NCAA Manual. Note that this all involves athletic scholarships. Howard mentioned schools that do not award athletic scholarships, too. I cannot find any similar rules governing aid that is not based on athletic ability, perhaps because there aren't any and the athletic department has no jurisdiction over non-athletic awards. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] *HMM* 11/13/93 ***** Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at: ***** ***** http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html ***** HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.