Recruiting 101

Aug. 1 marks a slight but important change on the NCAA Division I football recruiting calendar. Let's look at what colleges and recruits can and cannot do, through the eyes of both parties.

  June 1 through July 31 is what the NCAA calls a "quiet period." Knowing high school athletes have some time off during these summer months, the NCAA allows recruits to make in-person contact with a coach only on that coach's campus. So if a recruit wants to meet with the coaching staff of a school, he must visit the campus.

  These trips are commonly referred to as "unofficial visits." Many colleges also hold camps during this time where recruits, sometimes by invitation, visit the school and meet with the coaching staff. Scholarship offers can be made during this time.

Unofficial visits are unpaid visits. These differ from "official visits," which are financed by the university. On official visits, the university will pay for a recruit's transportation, lodging and meals over a 48-hour period. Each recruit is permitted five official visits, and official visits cannot begin until the start of a recruit's senior year. Most recruits make their official visits after their senior season is complete just because they have more time available.

 Aug. 1 through Nov. 26 remains a quiet period, except for six days specified by the college as "evaluation period" days. On these days, the NCAA allows authorized off-campus recruiters to visit a recruit's school to look at the recruit's on-field ability and academic qualifications. They can't make in-person contact with the recruit. One college can visit a particular high school only once during this period. However, official visits can be made during this time.

 For example, an institution selects Sept. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 and Oct. 7 as its evaluation days. On these days (usually Fridays), the institution's staff and coaches will be all over the country evaluating recruits. So on Sept. 2, one of the school's coaches can be at a high school game in Alabama, one at a game in California, one at a game in Missouri, etc.

 If an authorized recruiter from the college visits the recruit's high school on Sept. 2, no representative from that college can go back to that high school until Nov. 27. However, when the recruit makes an official visit to the college on Nov. 1, he can meet with the coaches, and his flight, hotel and meals will be paid for. The recruit can only make official visits to other colleges.

  Nov. 27 through Jan. 29, 2006, changes to a "contact period." Now authorized collegiate coaches and staff can make off-campus contact with a recruit. One school can't make more than six in-person contacts with one recruit, and one school can't meet with one recruit more than once in a calendar week.

 There are also a few days selected as "quiet periods" -- Dec. 18 and Jan. 8, 13 and 14, 2006 -- and a short time deemed a "dead period" (Dec. 19 through Jan. 1, 2006, and Jan. 9-12, 2006). The "dead period" forbids any kind of contact or evaluation, whether it is on campus or off campus.

 So during "contact period," if the head coach of an institution wants to go to a recruit's house and have dinner with his family, he is allowed to do so. The coach can have dinner with the recruit's family five more times, but he can't have dinner with the recruit's family twice in the same week. The coach also can't meet with the recruit on Christmas or have the recruit visit his college on New Year's Eve -- these days fall in the "dead period."

 The recruit cannot sign a letter of intent to any college until National Letter of Intent signing day, which falls on Feb. 1, 2006. Though most recruits do sign a letter of intent on this day, a recruit has until April 1, 2006, to make his decision and sign a letter of intent.