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Linebacker Roquan Smith of Macon County, Georgia, committed to UCLA but didn't sign when he learned that a UCLA assistant was leaving for the Atlanta Falcons. (Macon.com photo)

You're probably going to think this comparison is over the top, out of line, disrespectful, comparing an athlete to one of the seminal figures of the civil rights movement, and you're probably right.

After all, Rosa Parks stood up for every African-American man, woman and child when she refused to give up her seat on that Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955.

If what Roquan Smith did starts a trend, it'll no doubt open some doors for only a select number of high-profile college football recruits.

But even small steps toward freedom matter.

What did Smith do? Something that any recruit can do, technically, but few have the knowledge and power to do. As the AJC reported, the four-star linebacker prospect from Georgia simply decided that he won't sign a National Letter of Intent.

At last check, he still hasn't chosen which college he'll attend - Georgia, UCLA, Michigan and Texas A&M are his finalists - but when he does, he won't sign an NLI. He'll sign scholarship papers only.

What's the difference? It's a question the parents of every prospect should ask. Basically, the NLI binds a recruit to a school for one full year with no escape clause. It doesn't matter if the head coach, the coordinator and his position coach all leave the day after Signing Day and say, "Sorry, sucker."

He's pretty much stuck. Oh, he can leave, too, but there's a serious penalty.

As the official NLI home page explains, "Basic penalty for not fulfilling the NLI agreement: A student-athlete has to serve one year in residence (full-time, two semesters or three quarters) at the next NLI member institution and lose one season of competition in all sports."

Harsh, but there's another way, as Smith discovered.

Scholarship papers bind the school to the recruit. If he shows up for classes, the school has to have a scholarship waiting for him. If he changes his mind, he can choose another school without penalty.

The NLI gives the school the power. Scholarship papers give the power back to the player.

Why is Smith taking the road not traveled? Like Parks, he didn't set out to start a trend or lead a movement. She refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger on Dec. 1, 1955, because she was physically tired after a long day of work and spiritually tired of being treated like a second-class citizen. He won't sign an NLI because he almost got burned.

Smith announced on TV on National Signing Day that he'd chosen to attend UCLA over Georgia. Then he found out the UCLA defensive coordinator, Jeff Ulbrich, might be moving to Georgia to work for the Atlanta Falcons. Which Ulbrich did.

Because he hadn't signed a letter of intent, Smith wasn't stuck like other recruits last week who watched their position coaches bolt only after getting their signatures. He also wasn't sure he still wanted to go to UCLA.

So he made two smart decisions. He would wait to be sure, and when he was, he would sign only scholarship papers with that school, as his high school coach told the AJC, because "this just gives us flexibility in case something else happens unexpectedly again."

The downside of signing scholarship papers only? Other schools can continue to recruit Smith until he shows up on his chosen school's campus for classes. Signing an NLOI is supposed to put you off-limits to any more recruiting.

Smith's not the first college athlete to go this route - point guard Brandon Knight signed scholarship papers only with Kentucky in 2010 and did play for the 'Cats - but he may be the first high-profile football recruit to take advantage of the option.

You have to wonder how many recruits and their families even know this option exists. Schools probably aren't eager to inform them.

Chicken Littles will warn that these poor millionaire head coaches won't be sure of their rosters until the summer if more players follow Smith's lead, but it's not likely he's starting a massive movement. A relatively small percentage of prospects are good enough to shift the balance of power in their direction.

If a three-star guard said to a State U. coach that he would sign only scholarship papers, the coach likely would say no NLI, no deal. Next!

But every movement for freedom of any sort has to start with a single step, a single decision not to accept the status quo. So good for Roquan Smith. If he's not exactly oppressed, he's a lot more free today than he would've been had he signed that national letter a week ago.

That probably doesn't make him a modern Rosa Parks. It does make him a role model for future recruits.