NCAA announces end of recruiting dead period, see who's visiting USC

It was widely expected that the NCAA would finally end the prolonged recruiting dead period after May, and that was confirmed in an official announcement Thursday.

Schools like USC had already been mobilizing to set up official visits with prospects for June after not being able to formally host recruits on campus in either an official or unofficial capacity since the start of the pandemic last March. Coaches also were not permitted to do any in-person recruiting off campus during the dead period.

Many prospects eventually took to going on self-guided tours of campuses as an alternative, but on those visits they were not permitted to meet with coaches or tour athletic facilities.

That will finally change starting June 1.

We have been keeping a running file on all of the prospects we know to have set up official or unofficial visits with USC in June.

That list is available to our subscribers on our premium Trojan Talk board here.

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“We are delighted to announce that as of June 1, all sports will return to their normal recruiting calendars,” said Division I Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Pennsylvania. “We want to thank all prospective student-athletes, their families, coaches and current student-athletes for their patience as we determined the best way to move forward safely with recruiting in Division I.”

Here are some other amendments to the recruiting calendar/rule book that were approved, per the NCAA's news release:

The Council issued a waiver to permit on-campus evaluations during unofficial visits during the days football camps and clinics are allowed in June and July 2021 only, with some restrictions. The number of evaluation days in the sport will increase from 42 to 56 during the fall 2021 evaluation period only.

The Council also approved a waiver of the telephone call legislation for football for the 2021-22 academic year only. The waiver allows telephone calls during a prospective student-athlete’s junior year on the following schedule in 2022:

-In January, beginning the Sunday after the American Football Coaches Association Convention, one call per week.

-No calls in February.

-One call per week in March.

-Calls at the school’s discretion in April and May.

-One call per week in June and July.

-Aug. 1 through the Saturday after the AFCA Convention: Additional calls to prospective student-athletes or their family are not permitted before Sept. 1 of the beginning of their senior year in high school. After Sept. 1, calls are limited to once per week outside a contact period and may be made at the school’s discretion during a contact period.

The waiver is effective Aug. 1, 2021.

Council members also granted a waiver to allow school staff to participate in a call with any number of uncommitted prospective student-athletes in any sport and to allow student-athletes to participate in phone calls with a coach and prospective student-athletes or at the direction of a coach. Additionally, student-athletes cannot be directed to make calls on a day off.

The Council also approved a blanket waiver allowing full-time institutional staff members, current students and all coaches, including volunteer coaches, to initiate recruiting calls (for example, telephone calls, video calls) involving prospective student-athletes whom an institution is permitted to call. The waiver is in effect from June 1 through Dec. 31, 2021, and requires staff who are not making or receiving calls to prospects under an existing legislated exception (for example, academic advisors and compliance administrators) to pass the recruiting exam before making or receiving calls.