One of three recruiting shutdown periods in the 2023-24 season is now in effect, meaning coaches are not allowed to have any contact with prospective student-athletes for the next three weeks.
The year-end recruiting shutdown period started on Monday, December 18, and will run through January 7, 2024.
The shutdown period only applies to NCAA Division I.
13.02.5.6 Recruiting Shutdown. A recruiting shutdown is a period of time when no form of recruiting (e.g., contacts, evaluations, official or unofficial visits, correspondence or making or receiving telephone calls) is permissible. (Adopted: 4/25/18)
The current recruiting calendar was established to protect both the prospective student-athletes from being pursued and the coach a break from the 24/7 on-the-clock recruiting which will provide both parties with a better life balance. The new recruiting calendar provides a total of six weeks of recruiting shutdown periods.
Recruiting Shutdown Periods (2023-24)
- One week in August (August 21-27, 2023)
- The final 14 days of December (December 18-31, 2023)
- The first week of January (January 1-7, 2024)
- The last two weeks are in February during the two most popular weeks for conference championships (February 11-24, 2024)
There was also a recruiting “Dead Period” from November 6-9, 2023, which is when no face-to-face contact between coaches and prospective student-athletes is permitted.
Wish all divisions did this. A D3 coach sees this as their crunch time to get in there with some of these PSAs. Wish we could put a pause on the sport for all to recharge.
This is a great change for both the athlete and the Coach. Allows both parties to actually be present with their loved ones over the holidays and hopefully most, if not all of their winter training block.
I agree with the sentiment however a shorter timeframe would satisfy this. The other angle is that with the kids out of school and just finishing mid season meets, it’s a great time for them to do some work on their future.
Yeah I think most kids would rather have dead periods during the academic year than during the breaks.
I could see doing a few days between Christmas and New Years to make sure kids have time to decompress and process too but…
You should specify that this is strictly for Division 1