It is difficult for a player to get out of a Letter of Intent unless the school releases the player. There are two signing periods. One in the fall and one in the spring. The fall period is Nov. 11-18. Players who don't sign at that time must wait until April 7.
Many players sign in the fall, end the process and go back to living normal lives.
Others wait until spring either because they haven't made up their minds or because they have not yet made a qualifying score on either the SAT or ACT, which is required before signing a Letter of Intent during the early signing period. Also known as recruiting analysts, recruiting gurus generally write for recruiting publications that rank the high school players by position, by region and nationally. They also report on and or speculate about which schools are interested in which players, and vice versa. Bob Gibbons is probably the best known recruiting guru. A few of these publications are available on the newsstand.