Early signing period:
When: November 12-19
What: swimmers can sign a National Letter of Intent which is their binding agreement to attend a particular school. Coaches will provide scholarship papers for the swimmers and their parents to sign. A recruit cannot sign a National Letter of Intent unless there is some form of athletic scholarship. A book scholarship is the minimum.
A recruit must sign the NLI and scholarship papers between the 12th and 19th and has 14 days to get the signed forms back to the coach.
Dead period:
Coaches are not allowed to meet recruits face to face from 8am Monday November 10 through 8am Friday November 14. The dead period for the regular signing period is 8am April 13 through 8am April 17.
Official Visits:
When: September 1 of your senior year through August 1 except during a dead period.
What: A visit becomes official if the school pays for anything other than a ticket to an on campus event. If they buy you a hot dog it becomes an official visit. Due to budgetary cutbacks many school don’t have the money to pay for the entire trip and will ask you to pay for your transportation to and from campus. The schools will usually pick up the tab for room and board while you are there.
Your parents may come with you on an official visit and schools are allowed to pay for their room and board while they are there. This depends on a schools recruiting budget.
Limits: recruits are allowed to take official visits to 5 different Division I schools
New Rule: official visits to Division II schools are unlimited.
There are no official visits to Division III schools.
Official visits to NAIA schools are unlimited.
Tip: don’t assume that a school will pay for everything on an official visit. You need to ask.
Unofficial Visits:
When: anytime except during a dead period.
What: unofficial visits are unlimited as long as you pay for everything on your trip. A school can provide tickets to an on-campus event while you are there. You are allowed to spend the night with the team, but you will have to pay the going rate for the dorm room or motel.
Tip: let the coach know well in advance that you are coming to campus
Regular Signing Period:
When: April 15 through August 1
Verbal Commitments:
When: anytime
What: you can give your verbal commitment to attend a school at any time and the coach can give you a verbal commitment for a scholarship offer or a spot on the team at any time.
Verbals are not binding, but rarely do the coaches renege on their scholarship offers. Usually it’s the recruit who backs out. If you give your word to a coach you should honor it.
Pay attention to admission deadlines as they vary from school to school.
Courtesy of ACC, a SwimSwam partner.
How and what do you do to get swimswam to post an article about your college commitment?
Hi Liz,
The regular signing period goes from the middle of April until August 1. In the past several years we have had an average of 95 coaches contact us near the end of April looking for recruits for the following fall. There are always opportunities for the regular signing period.
Keep the coaches updated with progress (best unrested times count too) in school and in the pool. Apply before the admission deadline and be sure ot let the coaches know that you have applied. Don’t assume admissions will communicate this to them.
Explore other options for schools as many coaches will have openings after the early signing period.
For D1, if you don’t find the right fit/offer during early signing period, what is the process going to regular signing? Stay in touch with coaches, communicate achievements and do you need to actually apply to schools? Any advice appreciated.
I see your twitter tweeting about swimmers that have verbally committed. How does one gt a shoutout?
When a swimmer is given an offer (this early in recruiting), is it okay to counteroffer?
It is definitely OK to counter an offer. A lot of times, the first offer is not always the best offer. Remember, it is not about what a school is going to give you; it is about what you are going to have to give the school.
Typically, swimmers should start constructing a list and contacting coaches via email at the end of sophomore year. This gives them a very good amount of time to see where they are at and lots of time for coaches to respond.
If you want to wait till junior year to begin contacting that can also work as some people need an extra year to achieve some better times for the colleges they wish to contact, all depends on where the swimmer is in their high school career.
When do coaches generally start recruiting swimmers? I know that coaches cannot initiate any contact until September 1st of the swimmer’s junior year but does the recruting start at that time or only after the swimmer’s junior year?
See the previous article “When Do I Start the College Recruiting Process?” We recommend the kids get started in the 9th or 10th grade depending on their passion for the sport. We want to make sure they don’t “burn out” before they get to college.
When should a junior in high school be reaching out to coaches/schools with siwm programs. There are a lot of good swimmers out there that are not always on the recruiting radar.
HI Kathleen, sorry for the late reply. Most college coaches like to identify talent and potential recruits in the 9th and 10th grade. A junior should get their info out ot the college coaches asap. The coaches are emailing potential recruits in an effort to get to know them and determine if they are going to call them after their junior year and offer an official visit.
Look back at an article that I wrote for SwimSwam, “When Do I Start the College Recruiting Process?” and you can see the results of our survey.
Hi Rick – How common are verbal commitments for swimmers before the end of their junior year? I don’t hear about it happening in swimming the way it does in lacrosse. At least not with the top tier schools or swimmers. It really isn’t in the swimmer’s, or any athlete’s, best interest to verbally commit too early because so many factors are involved with a college decision.
Very rare….only the very elite and they usually do it to clear the summer/fall to better prepare for international competition. Pelton and Ledecky are two that come to mind. Can’t recall anything similar for young men.
Lacrosse has different recruiting rules….coaches can contact swimmers July 1st of their sophomore year and its not unusual for top lacrosse recruits to take visits in the fall of their junior year.
College swim coaches opposed a similar rule for swimming on the grounds that they have less recruiting resources than some of the other big time sports and they would be overwhelmed
Hi Susan,
Sorry for the late reply. I just returned from Kauai. Junior year verbals are pretty rare. IN 14 years at American College Connection we have had one girl and one boy give a verbal commitment in their junior year. If the kids are mature enough to know what they want and if they find the right fit for academics, swimming and scholarship it if OK to commit as a junior, but I agree with you that most kids are not ready.
Just found this article, which was great info, and it’s amazing how things have changed in the last 3 years. Verbals have increased so much in swimming!