Coronavirus: NCAA suspends acceptance of letters of intent

NCAA suspends acceptance of national letters of intent because of coronavirus outbreak

Mississippi Rebels vs. Xavier Musketeers in the 2015 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Staff Writer

March 17, 2020 2:12 PM PT

The acceptance of national letters of intent for NCAA Division I and II sports has been suspended until at least April 15 as a result of the emergency recruiting dead period that began last week in response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Collegiate Commissioners Assn. announced Tuesday.

The suspension will be reevaluated on or before April 15.

Any letters of intent signed by prospective college athletes before Monday will be managed through the normal validation process with the conference office.

Once the signing period resumes, the Division I football signing period, set to run Feb. 5 through April 1, will be extended by 30 days. The Division I basketball signing period, set to run April 15 through May 20, will be evaluated on or before April 15.

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Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

NCAA suspends acceptance of national letters of intent because of coronavirus outbreak

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