After meeting in the fall of 2018, the Division I Council put a number of brand new NCAA recruiting rules in place. This significantly affects the NCAA recruiting calendar for Division 1 colleges, college coaches, and prospective student-athletes. Here’s what’s new for men’s basketball recruiting:

Before you read: This legislation only applies to NCAA D1 colleges. D2 and D3 colleges are not affected by the recent approval of these changes. No matter what division you’re looking at, to reach eligibility requirements and avoid NCAA eligibility issues make sure you register with the NCAA as soon as possible to maintain your amateur status!

 

What does each period mean?

Before diving into the actual legislation, it’s important to grasp what each period means to the student-athlete and coach. Here’s a run-down:

  • Live Period – Where coaches can contact and evaluate recruits at events. This is also referred to often as a contact period.
  • Quiet Period – Where only in-person contacts can be made on the college campus and no in-person, off-campus contacts or evaluations can occur. For example, emailing college coaches is OK, but they won’t be able to respond right away! This is a great time to put together highlight videos from your high school season for coaches to take a look at.
  • Recruiting Period – When in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts and evaluations can occur. NCAA rules allow you to take unofficial visits, official visits, and talk to coaches.
  • Evaluation Period – When a live period comes into play, with these changes affecting the recruiting camp timeline for Division One colleges, not Division 2 colleges or Division 3 colleges.
  • Dead Period – When no in-person recruiting or evaluations can happen, as well as visits unofficial or official. To ensure you maintain NCAA eligibility, make sure not to be making contact with schools during this time!
  • Signing Period – The time to commit! This includes signing the National Letter of Intent (NLI), primarily done on National Signing Day which spans across Division I schools all the way to Division III.

 

So, what were the changes?

  • There is now a four-day live period that spans from April 29 through May 2 following the April 26-28 non-scholastic events evaluation period.
  • A new Top 100 camp run by the NBPA and NCAA takes place from Jun 13-14
  • An evaluation period from June 21-23, 28-30 at events approved by the NFSHSA, NJCAA, CCCAA, and NWAC
  • A reduction from three weekends in July to one weekend of NCAA-certified non-scholastic events from July 11-14
  • A new youth development camp, conducted by the NCAA and member schools/conferences, from July 23-28.

On top of the changes that were made to the event schedule, there have also been a few changes to note in the summer recruiting schedule. Here’s what you need to know:

  • There is now a new dead period that spans from May 16-24
  • There is a quiet period that spans May 3 through July 4
  • There are new dead periods within this! The important dates to note are:
    • May 16-24
    • July 6-10, 15-22, and 29-31

Why did this change happen?

After years of investigations and trials, the coaches and the Division I Council decided change was necessary to avoid future conflicts of interest. Prioritizing the student-athlete and ensuring early and illegal recruitment comes to a halt, the council went back and forth on a number of proposed changes and settled on this new schedule. Here is an article from CBS outlining why college coaches thought these changes were necessary in the long term.

What can SportsRecruits do to help?

You might think that’s a lot of changes to keep track of, but not to worry; a lot has stayed the same! There is still a recruiting period that runs from September 9 – March 31 with dead periods from November 12-15 and December 24-26. There are going to be a lot of changes in some of the biggest and well-known events in the basketball recruiting space, so here is a great article to outline what will be different.

Throughout these periods, contacting college coaches and getting film out there for them to see is going to be as important as ever. With a messaging system that can reach every coach in the country, a video platform to host all of your highlights, and a school search feature to find the best fit for you, SportsRecruits is the best way to traverse the newfound changes to the recruiting landscape!

About the Author


David Roelke is one of the Customer Success Interns at SportsRecruits. David’s experience as a basketball student-athlete at Lehigh University has driven his passion for helping student-athletes better navigate and understand the recruiting process.