Landing recruits will continue to be done in a different way until at least May 31, according to an announcement by the NCAA on Wednesday, extending the on-going dead period for another couple of months.
“The Division I Council Coordination Committee and the Division II Administrative Committee extended the recruiting dead period through May 31,” the NCAA said in a release. “The committees will continue to be guided by experts to determine whether the date needs to be extended.”
This means no official or unofficial visits for football recruits, which happens quite a bit in the spring.
Evaluations also won’t take place and basketball spring signees and transfers may need to make a big decision without every having visited a school unless the signing date is moved back due to the ongoing global health crisis.
With the coronovirus pandemic forcing the NCAA to cancel everything for the spring, th entire world of college sports is wobbling with uncertainty. This is the first year since 1939 that March Madness is not being played.
Every sport across the world has been halted. The Masters has been postponed and Wimbledon cancelled. The Indianapolis 500 has been moved to August.
And football is in a holding pattern, waiting to see how things play out.
The NFL is plowing ahead with it’s annual cattle call for players and actually expanding the season and playoffs. They’ve dealt with shortened or chaotic seasons before and survived.
Now the second-most important aspect to football is basically an abbreviation. Yes, recruiting is literally a season all by itself with rankings and everything.
All we can do is see how it plays out.
