NCAA extends ‘dead period’ yet again, bringing more hurdles for basketball recruits
The NCAA announced Wednesday evening that the recruiting “dead period” related to COVID-19 has been extended through May 31.
The dead period, which is effectively a ban on all recruiting-related travel, has been in place since last March and was previously set to expire April 15. This is the latest of several extensions to that timeline.
This extension means that uncommitted high school players in the 2021 class will not be able to take official recruiting visits before coming to a college decision. Players in the 2021 class have been barred from such visits since the dead period began nearly a year ago, and many of the top players in the class — including all three Kentucky signees: Daimion Collins, Nolan Hickman and Bryce Hopkins — picked their schools without taking sanctioned campus visits.
Kentucky is still recruiting several players in the 2021 class, including five-star guards Jaden Hardy, Trevor Keels and Hunter Sallis, and none of those recruits have had an opportunity to visit Lexington.
The regular signing period for 2021 recruits begins April 14, and players can wait until after that date to officially sign with a college, but it’s highly unlikely any top prospects in the class will stretch their recruitments all the way until June in hopes of taking campus visits. This extension also means that any recruits looking to reclassify from 2022 to 2021 would have to wait until at least June to take campus visits, perhaps affecting or prolonging some of those decisions.
The effects of the recruiting ban will be felt beyond the 2021 class.
The dead period also prohibits college coaches from traveling to see recruits play in person, and it bans them from personally meeting with prospects and their families. College coaches have not had an opportunity to see players in the 2022 class play since their sophomore years of high school. And at the time when coaches were permitted to see those players, they were still recruiting for the 2020 class and starting to concentrate more on the 2021 recruits.
The latest extension will prohibit college coaches from attending any grassroots basketball events in April, which is usually a busy month for recruiting as the Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and other spring/summer leagues begin.
Along with Wednesday’s announcement that the dead period would continue, NCAA Division I Council chair M. Grace Calhoun did offer some hope that the end of the recruiting travel ban could be near.
“There is a strong commitment to use the next several weeks to outline the transition plan back to recruiting activities post June 1 and to provide those plans to prospective student-athletes, their families and the NCAA membership no later than April 15,” Calhoun said in a statement.
Typically, the month of June offers college coaches opportunities to see recruits in camp settings and with their high school teams, and it’s also been a popular time for high school prospects to visit college campuses. July is a major month on the recruiting calendar, with multiple evaluation periods for coaches at several high-profile events across the country.
