It’s Opening Day for recruiting for the high school class of 2027! (I don’t want to make you feel old but we’re talking about the college class of 2031.)
June 15, 2025, otherwise known as the first day of allowable athletic recruiting for rising high school juniors by NCAA Division I and Division II coaches, is finally here. Today, student-athletes in the class of 2027 can both initiate and receive communications –including email, text messages, social media messages, phone calls, and video calls– with college coaches. They can also make verbal commitments for the 2027-28 school year. (NCAA Division III coaches are not constrained by this rule; they can make contact and recruit year-round.)
Contact between coaches and prospective student-athletes, whether off-campus or on-campus (on-campus visits include both official and unofficial visits) may not begin until August 1st.
In the past, the NCAA has published separate recruiting calendars of allowable events for Division I baseball, women’s basketball, men’s basketball, football, men’s golf, women’s lacrosse, men’s lacrosse, softball, women’s volleyball, beach volleyball, and cross country/track and field. Recruiting timelines for all other Division I sports, including swimming and diving, are spelled out in a separate recruiting calendar.
As of today, the NCAA has only published the recruiting 2025-26 calendars for women’s and men’s basketball.
Each of the calendars list the allowable and non-allowable contact periods for their respective sports. Over the last several years, the NCAA has sought to make the lives of prospective student-athletes and college coaches less stressful by curbing early recruiting (gone are the days when coaches were getting verbal commitments from 8th-graders) and giving coaches a break from year-round recruiting.
Contact Periods Defined
- Recruiting Period: Authorized athletics department staff may make in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts and evaluations.
- Quiet Period: It is permissible to make in-person recruiting contacts only on the member institution’s campus. No in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts or evaluations may be made during the quiet period.
- Dead Period: It is not permissible to make in-person recruiting contacts or evaluations on or off the member institution’s campus or to permit official or unofficial visits by prospective student-athletes to the institution’s campus.
- Recruiting Shutdown: No form of recruiting (e.g., contacts, evaluations, official or unofficial visits, correspondence or making or receiving telephone calls) is permissible.
Following the House vs NCAA settlement, the swimming and diving recruiting landscape will change in significant ways. To begin with, those schools that have opted into the agreement will have roster limits for 2025-26 and beyond. In most cases, this will mean fewer recruiting spots for the 2027-28 school year. On the other hand, the NCAA’s scholarship limits (14.1 per women’s team and 9.9 per men’s team) are no longer in effect and these schools will now be allowed –but not required– to offer full scholarships to every member of the team.
Class of 2027
The phones were likely ringing off the hook this morning for some of the biggest names in the high school class of 2027. Those include Luke Mijatovic, who has been named to Team USA for the upcoming World Aquatics Championships, and prospective members of the World Junior Championships squad: Audrey Derivaux, Brayden Capen, Collin Holgerson, Daisy Collins, Kaidy Stout, Luke Vatev, Rylee Erisman, Shareef Elaydi, Thomas McMillan. In addition, the youngest members of the 2024-25 National Junior team will be on many coaches’ lists: Anthony Dornoff, Colin Jacobs, and Mia Su.
Other top recruits from the cohort include Davis Jackson, Ellis Crisci, Griffin Oehler, Hayden Vicknair, Joey Campagnola, Juan Vallmitjana, and Trent Allen; as well as Abby Chan, Adalynn Biegler, Alyssa Ton, Bianca Nwaizu, Blakely Hammel, Carly Afanasewicz, Chloe Teger, Emily Wolf, Nikki Nixon, Sadie Buckley, Sarah Paisley Owen, and Vivienne Zangaro.
Top 2027 boys, alphabetically:
| Athlete | Hometown |
| Anthony Dornoff | Cerritos, CA |
| Brayden Capen | Lisle, IL |
| Colin Jacobs | Bradenton, FL |
| Collin Holgerson | Chattanooga, TN |
| Davis Jackson | Raleigh, NC |
| Ellis Crisci | Lawrence, KS |
| Griffin Oehler | Rockville, MD |
| Hayden Vicknair | Signal Mountain, TN |
| Joey Campagnola | Seminole, FL |
| Juan Vallmitjana | Fort Lauderdale, FL |
| Luka Mijatovic | Pleasanton, CA |
| Luke Vatev | Clarendon Hills, IL |
| Shareef Elaydi | Santa Clara, CA |
| Thomas McMillan | Saint Charles, IL |
| Trent Allen | Carmel, IN |
Top 2027 girls, alphabetically:
| Athlete | Hometown |
| Abby Chan | Madison, AL |
| Adalynn Biegler | Big Lake, MN |
| Alyssa Ton | Fountain Valley, CA |
| Audrey Derivaux | Haddonfield, NJ |
| Bianca Nwaizu | Irvine, CA |
| Blakely Hammel | Jacksonville, FL |
| Carly Afanasewicz | Pearl River, NY |
| Chloe Teger | Villa Park, CA |
| Daisy Collins | Chapel Hill, NC |
| Emily Wolf | Fishers, IN |
| Kaidy Stout | Lewisville, NC |
| Mia Su | Sunnyvale, CA |
| Nikki Nixon | Raleigh, NC |
| Rylee Erisman | Windermere, FL |
| Sadie Buckley | Fairfax, VA |
| Sarah Paisley Owen | Atlanta, GA |
| Vivienne Zangaro | Long Beach, NY |
In past years, there was a recruiting dead period during “signing week,” which began on the second Wednesday in November. But with the dissolution of the National Letter of Intent program following the House settlement, it is unclear if there will still be a dead period in November. We can assume the following shutdown periods will remain in place:
Swimming and Diving Recruiting Shutdown Periods
- One week in August
- The final 14 days of December
- The first week of January
- The third and fourth weeks in February during the most popular period for conference championships
(NOTE: If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected]. Do not leave it in the comments.
Ok guys is Luka going to Cal or Texas.
The argument for Cal is that it is local, his training partner Tim Wu is going there, and they have had some of the best mid d development in the NCAA recently (Gabe Jett, Alexy, etc).
However the allure of Texas is clear, bowman, insane training group, NIL money.
Honestly it could go either way.
I see Florida as a potential third option but Luke Whitlock leaving makes me think Luka won’t trust the distance coaching.
Would love others thoughts on this
My guess is Texas.
Yeah me too
Stanford with Lindaeur is the only other viable option I could think of. Great coach, superior school, near home if thats something he wants.
Ok guys is Luka going to Cal or Texas.
The argument for Cal is that it is local, his training partner Tim Wu is going there, and they have had some of the best mid d development in the NCAA recently (Gabe Jett, Alexy, etc).
However the allure of Texas is clear, bowman, insane training group, NIL money.
Honestly it could go either way.
I see Florida as a potential third option but Luke Whitlock leaving makes me think Luka won’t trust the distance coaching.
Would love others thoughts on this.
hoping for Sadie Buckley to UVA
Bob Bowman is on a plane to the Bay Area for totally unrelated reasons.
it’s funny you think Bob would actually travel to recruit rather than just sit at his new house in Texas and send 10 texts about how much money he can offer top recruits
He used to travel
God it’s so great to have a stacked IL class. Capen, McMillan, and Vatev have been so unbelievably fun to watch here in Illinois and I can’t wait to see them in the NCAA
Yeah hmmm i wonder which person is getting called the most, anyone in this group done anything interesting? Lol jk mijatovic definitely getting swamped rn.
Probably so but realistically there’s maybe 3-4 colleges that have a chance with him?
Cal, IU, Texas, and Florida?
It’s Cal or Texas lol. Everyone else might as well just not even try.
I’m curious if the top recruits in this class will just ending up taking gap years since they’ll be starting college so close to Olympic Trials in 2028
When is the College Swim Coaches Association going to actually put an effort forward to get recruiting put back to the summer after an athletes Junior year.
Kids getting recruited that some still are barely driving a car yet it is a joke. Let these kids have their junior year to train and compete without worrying about colleges yet and the stress of it. Senior year can be tough for many reasons put recruiting back on their senior year when these kids actually have a somewhat idea of who they are and what they want to do. It’s amazing how much these kids mature each year and I have yet to meet anyone who likes this setup the… Read more »
yes but committing earlier towards the end of a students junior year can take away so much college application stress and worry which is nice
This. Having that decision made earlier relieves a lot of senior year stress.
Additionally, the athlete is more committed to training and preparation during the senior year, rather than a “senior slide” – which is only further exacerbated by the recruiting process/trips/etc. Juniors don’t slide like that.
It WOULD relieve stress, IF those commitments actually meant anything. Look at all the kids this past year that committed and then were told they had no spot.
Absolutely! This happened to my son and it was a really stressful year because of it. Commitments don’t mean anything. And I’m rather surprised that not much has changed as far as recruiting. It isn’t right that the coaches seem to pressure the kids to sign early because there is “more scholarships to offer”. They lock the kids in but can tell them at any time that there isn’t a spot for them. Not cool.
At my kids’ school, they have really cracked down on absences, which, as you know, are fairly common for swimmers attending big meets. My rising senior had an official visit and the absences were counted against her b/c in Virginia, you’re only allowed excused absences for college visits if you’re a senior. She’s my third swimmer, so this won’t affect us, but pushing back the contact date might be nice.
Junior year is tough year in school. A lot of high level hard classes. Senior year for my kids is/was just a few hard classes with early dismissal and periods as an aid. Going through visits and keeping up with classes in my son’s junior year was exhausting for him. Actually probably hurt his training and big meets because he was so worn down that he got pretty sick. Senior year would have been much more relaxed.
Yep, my daughter is in this graduating class and isn’t 16 yet. She has been getting contacted but is stressed about it and doesn’t know what to do honestly.
This happened to my youngest. She had 20 some emails and texts when she woke up and went to practice on 6/15/2024, then had about 20 more when she got home. She was also 15. She said “I’m going back to bed”. It was so overwhelming
Methinks too many Mommies and Daddies are posting – let your babies navigate the process without the massive hovering.
Are you suggesting that it’s hovering to help a 15-year-old navigate this process? With all the changes coming into play, I would think not only would any child need assistance, but in the modern landscape and in the case of top recruits, agents/lawyers/accountants may also be needed. These are still kids trying to live life as kids regardless of talent.
It’s good to start looking into colleges before junior year of HS begins, whether or not you play a sport. Starting the college search after junior year is over can make the search process more frantic. That being said, if a kid wants to play a sport in college, finding out what schools are in play and which may not be in play before junior year makes the process less frantic and stressful. If a kids top choices likely won’t have a roster spot for them, better to find that out earlier so they can expand their search.
Why is this a problem for swimming when most of the other college sports start recruiting at this same point, if not before?
Never understood to the push to crush make this a “jam it into 3 months before and during senior year fall process”
Those involved with those sports say the same thing in wanting the recruiting timeline shortened.