NCAA Enforces Recruiting Dead Period for All Sports Due to Coronavirus Pandemic

Following the cancellation of all NCAA winter and spring sports championships this season due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA has instituted an in-person recruiting dead period until April 15. This affects all NCAA sports.

This dead period prohibits all in-person recruiting meetings between high school athletes and coaches, including campus visits and meetings between athletes and coaches elsewhere. This restriction went into effect today and mirrors similar in-person restrictions and suspensions enacted by individual schools and conferences regarding recruiting.

Contact between athletes and coaches, as it adheres to regular NCAA recruiting rules, is still allowed via texting and phone calls as in a regularly scheduled dead period. These dead periods are factored into many NCAA sports’ recruiting calendars during a normal season.

For swimming & diving, there is typically just one dead period in a calendar year, the Monday to Thursday of the first week of the signing period in November. That fell from November 11-14 of 2019 this season.

Most sports governing agencies have outright canceled all matches, meets, and practices for the rest of the winter season and most (or all) of the spring season, on both the domestic and international stages. This ruling won’t completely shut down recruiting, as texts and calls are still allowed, but it will certainly hamper the recruiting process for both prospective athletes and college coaches over the next month.

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sosa
4 years ago

This is just for D1 athletes though, correct?

Ol' Longhorn
4 years ago

They should not recruit the dead.

Anonymous
4 years ago

Fan-flippin-tastic – what else do you have on this lovely Friday the 13th???? Bring it on…

GA Boy
4 years ago

Good thing it’s the low point in big swim commitment season.

Anonymous
Reply to  GA Boy
4 years ago

But it’s a busy time for Junior Days

Swimmy
Reply to  GA Boy
4 years ago

Not for d3 schools, lots of kids trying to make their final decisions

Stinky
Reply to  Swimmy
4 years ago

Not positive but I don’t think this applies to d3.

About Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon studied sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, graduating in May of 2018. He began swimming on a club team in first grade and swam four years for Wesleyan.

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