Division I contact period begins

We’re officially two weeks into Division I baseball’s spring recruiting contact period. And with the North Carolina high school baseball season officially one month old, it’s the perfect time to go over the recruiting calendar. We’ll take a look at what the different periods means, when each period starts and ends, and what a player can expect during each period.

First, the Division I baseball recruiting calendar can be found here, at NCAA.org. The NCAA’s recruiting calendar runs from Aug. 1 through July 31, and the dates change annually dependent on how months and weeks fall on the calendar. We mentioned we’re in the contact period, but what does that mean? Here’s a breakdown of the periods.

 

Contact period

The contact period is just as it sounds, the time when a coach can make contact with a player. During a contact period, a coach may place phone calls to juniors and seniors. It is important to note, only juniors and seniors can receive calls from coaches, but any player regardless of class may call a coach.

In addition to the time when a coach can initiate a phone call, the contact period is also a time when a coach can evaluate a player away from their campus. The NCAA’s definition: A contact period is a period of time when it is permissible for authorized athletics department staff members to make in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts and evaluations. 

As players play for their high school in the spring, and travel teams in the summer, these seasons are near-exclusively contact periods, to allow coaches to watch players and evaluate them.

The current contact period continues until the end of the recruiting calendar, July 31, 2018, except for a dead period, April 9-12. What’s a dead period then?

 

Dead period

A dead period is when a coach can cannot see a player on, or off campus. The NCAA’s definition: A dead period is a period of time when it is not permissible to make in-person recruiting contacts or evaluations on or off the institution’s campus or to permit official or unofficial visits by prospective student-athletes to the institution’s campus. It remains permissible, however, for an institutional staff member to write or telephone a prospective student-athlete during a dead period. 

There are three dead periods to be aware of.

The early signing period, whenever that occurs, beginning for seven days after the second Tuesday in November.

The week of the ABCA national convention, this is every January, this winter is was Jan. 4-7.

And the first week of the spring signing period, this year, April 9-12, is a dead period.

When the recruiting calendar is not in a contact period nor dead period, it is in a quiet period, which has parts of each period.

 

Quiet period

Like a contact period, a coach can interact in person with a prospective student-athlete. And like a dead period, the coach cannot make in-person contact or evaluate off his campus. That leaves us in a situation where the contact must occur on the coaches’ campus. It is permissible for a player and his family to visit a campus and see a coach on their own accord and dime; this is an unofficial visit.

The NCAA’s definition of a quiet period: A quiet period is a period of time when it is permissible to make in-person recruiting contacts only on the institution’s campus. No in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts or evaluations may
be made during the quiet period.

There are two quiet periods to be aware of.

The first is at the end of the summer season, where college coaches are back on campus preparing for their current players to return after summer break.

The second falls at the end of the early signing period, and extends until the spring contact period, with the exception of the dead period in January.

 

Now that you know the three periods of the recruiting calendar, and know we’re in the contact period, it’s time to put your best foot forward, and play the game like a true Dirtbag, because college coaches are out watching and evaluating, looking for the next wave of talent.