Official visit limits are going away after July 1. What does that mean for the Longhorns?

On3 imageby:Joe Cook05/03/23

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In April, the NCAA’s Division I Council approved a Division I Football Oversight Committee recommendation for a new comprehensive recruiting model in the FBS. Amid the corporate jargon came major changes to how programs can recruit, both on and off campus.

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The most important change was the elimination of the limit of official visits a prospect could take. Previously, a potential student-athlete for football could only take five official visits, with some limited exceptions. The NCAA’s DI council removed that cap in April. The new rule will go into effect on July 1.

The specific wording from the NCAA is below.

The council adopted new recruiting rules for official and unofficial visits. Moving forward, prospects will no longer have a limit to the number of official visits they can make to NCAA member schools. Prospects will be limited to one official visit per school, unless there is a head coaching change after an official visit, in which case prospects would be able to complete a second official visit to the same school.

What does this mean? Prospects who are making a round of trips in June can currently take up to five. Once the calendar changes to July and the dead period ends on the 24th of that month, prospects who have exhausted their previous allotment of visits can take more official visits to other institutions.

Those in-season visits could come after July commitments made in the wake of June OVs. A prospect like Aeryn Hampton, who recently named a top two of Texas and Alabama and has trips to both planned next month, could commit following those OVs and then take a number of official visits while pledged to the Longhorns, the Crimson Tide, or another suitor.

Plus, prospects who plan to take their recruitment further in the cycle could see all of their final schools, even if the list of finalists was ten deep.

For Texas, this includes prospects like KingJoseph Edwards, Colin Simmons, Jordon Johnson-Rubell, and Selman Bridges who plan to take their recruitments past the summer and into the fall, potentially up to national signing day. All could see as many games and schools as their schedules allow. None of those prospects have released their final top schools list.

Other changes of significance were ratified as well, but they don’t go into effect until after August 1.

  • Schools would have 33 evaluation days (42 for U.S. service academies) during the months of September, October and November, selected at the discretion of the school. Only authorized off-campus recruiters could visit a prospective student-athlete’s educational institution and on only one calendar day during this period.
  • The Monday of the week that includes the initial date for the regular signing period of the National Letter of Intent through the first Sunday in March would be a dead period.
  • For U.S. service academies, the Friday immediately after the initial date for the regular signing period of the National Letter of Intent through the first Sunday in March would be a quiet period.
  • At the discretion of the membership school, coaches would have 140 recruiting person days (180 for U.S. service academies) from April 15 through the Saturday preceding Memorial Day for a contact period.
  • The Sunday before Memorial Day and the next three calendar days would be a dead period.

There were alterations to how early and often coaches can begin communicating with underclassmen. After August 1, effectively beginning next summer, institutions can initiate telephone calls to individuals or their families, send letters, or direct message graphics beginning on June 15 following the completion of a prospect’s sophomore year. That means on June 15, 2024, the communication floodgates will open for prospects in the class of 2026.

Any previous restrictions regarding when or how often schools could initiate calls after that June 15 date with prospects who had completed their sophomore year were eliminated.

Changes were made to how coaches can evaluate sophomores and juniors off-campus. According to the NCAA, those changes were:

  • Off-campus recruiting contacts could not be made with an individual (or the individual’s family members) before Jan. 1 of the individual’s junior year in high school.
  • A school would be limited to eight off-campus, in-person contacts with a prospective student-athlete and the prospect’s family members for the prospect’s junior and senior years combined. 
  • Contact could occur only one time per week.
  • Contacts that occur during the prospective student-athlete’s junior year in high school could occur only at the prospective student-athlete’s educational institution. 
  • Schools would be allowed up to two off-campus contacts during the January contact period of a prospective student-athlete’s junior year of high school. A school would also be allowed one off-campus contact during the spring contact period of a prospective student-athlete’s junior year of high school.
  • The head football coach could make only one off-campus contact during the prospective student-athlete’s junior year and one off-campus contact during the prospective student-athlete’s senior year in high school with a prospect or their family members. The model would not change the off-campus recruiting prohibition of FBS head coaches during the spring contact period. 

(A “day” is used when any staff member steps foot on a high school campus. If two coaches are present, then that uses two available days.)

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Division I FBS recruiting calendar until August 1

April 15 – May 31: Evaluation period – An evaluation period is that period of time when it is permissible for authorized athletics department staff members to be involved in off-campus activities designed to assess the academic qualifications and playing ability of prospective student-athletes. No in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts shall be made with the prospective student-athlete during an evaluation period.

June 1 – June 25: Quiet period – A quiet period is that period of time when 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.

June 26 – July 24: Dead period – A dead period is that period of time when 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

July 25 – July 31: Quiet period

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