What are the new recruiting rules?
The new recruiting rules essentially push back the dates that coaches can talk about recruiting to athletes in person. Here’s a list of the new changes:
Official visits: Recruits can now start taking official visits starting September 1 of their junior year of high school. In the past, official visits weren’t permitted until the athlete’s senior year of high school, so this rule is actually bumping them up!
Camps: Recruits and college coaches are not allowed to have any recruiting conversations during camps prior to September 1 of the athlete’s junior year of high school. Previously, there weren’t really any rules that prevented coaches from talking about recruiting to underclassmen during camps. In fact, it had become common practice for college coaches to extend verbal scholarship offers to top recruits during camps.
Unofficial visits: Division 1 college athletic departments—this includes college coaches—are not allowed to be involved in a recruit’s unofficial visits until after September 1 of their junior year. Quick refresher: Unofficial visits are any campus visits paid for entirely by the recruit’s family. Before the rule change, unofficial visits were an easy way for underclassmen to visit a college camps, meet with the coach and get an early verbal offer. Under the new rules, if athletes want to take unofficial visits, they cannot schedule them with the coach until September 1 junior year—they should treat the unofficial visit just like any other student would. If the recruit happens to bump into the coach on campus, they can’t have any recruiting conversations at that time.
Why the rule changes?
The NCAA hopes these rule changes will cut back on the number of recruits getting verbal offers as eighth graders, freshmen and sophomores in high school. Athletes will now have more time to research colleges and focus on developing athletically and academically. Then, as juniors and seniors in high school, they will be better equipped to decide which college or university is right for them.