NCAA Extends Recruiting Dead Period For All Sports Through May 31st

The NCAA has extended its previously announced in-person recruiting dead period through May 31 due to the COVID-19 pandemic – the dead period previously ran only through April 15.

The 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 March 13 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: Monday to Thursday of the first week of the signing period in November. That fell from November 11-14 of 2019 this season.

Most major collegiate conferences are prohibiting all matches, meets, and practices for the rest of the school year, and high schools around the nation are starting to follow suit. While an extended dead period won’t completely shut down recruiting, it will put another kink in the process for both student-athletes and coaches who are already experiencing significant disruptions to their careers.

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Its me Blind Person Here
3 years ago

I totally thought the title said, “NCAA extends recruiting dead people.” And I was so confused, had to do a double-take

Riccardo
3 years ago

Whenever I think about the NCAA it always shocks me how powerful they are with how little leverage they actually have.

90% of what they do is bad for coaches and athletes. It’s a money pit, if schools decided to leave and create their own leagues they would make way more money.

Obviously it would take some key players in key sports, but I do believe it will happen eventually.

Curious
Reply to  Riccardo
3 years ago

I’m curious as to whether you feel this fits into the 90% of what the NCAA does that is bad for coaches and athletes or the 10% that is not and why. I’m guessing from your commentary on schools pulling out of the NCAA to form their own leagues, it is the former, but I am wondering about how this extended dead period is seen as a bad thing right now.

Anonymous
Reply to  Curious
3 years ago

As a parent of a junior who is going thru the recruiting process right now the extension makes that very difficult. All of the spring official visits were cancelled with no date to reschedule. We had really hoped to have this wrapped up by the end of May and that will be extended probably until the fall. Also, there is now very little time between when the extension ends and coaches start talking to rising juniors. Phone and facetime is great but there is no opportunity to meet the team and that is a big part in the decision making process.

Curious
Reply to  Anonymous
3 years ago

Sure, the COVID outbreak has made this difficult for everyone, but this is only a mere setback compared the the myriad other complications. Phone and facetime are great options right now. Even without the dead period extension, meeting the team wasn’t going to be a reality at most schools since so many have decided to finish out the year online. All is not lost by pushing juniors’ visits to fall of their senior year. They’ll be fine. Stay safe out there!

Nswim
3 years ago

I’ve talked via video call with several coaches, although it’s not ideal, it’s a good solution to not having in person contact

JCO
3 years ago

Time to see which schools can use social media the best to aid in recruiting. Virtual tours, coach interviews (from their home), and facts about the school’s program and history? Let’s get creative

About Torrey Hart

Torrey Hart

Torrey is from Oakland, CA, and majored in media studies and American studies at Claremont McKenna College, where she swam distance freestyle for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team. Outside of SwimSwam, she has bylines at Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation, and The Student Life newspaper.

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