NCAA: Major recruiting rules changes incoming this summer

The NCAA Division I Council recently met to discuss numerous topics regarding recruiting. In addition to the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel making changes to college football rules, the NCAA’s Division I Council made sweeping changes regarding official and unofficial visits for prospective student-athletes in both football and basketball.

Starting in July, football recruits will no longer be bound by the old NCAA rules that restricted their official visit count to five. When the calendar turns to July 1st, players will be able to take an unlimited amount of official visits, but they will be limited to just one official visit per school. An exception to this rule will allow recruits to officially visit the same school twice if a coaching change occurs after the player’s first official visit. Unofficial visits will remain unrestricted, as long as the player is footing the bill for their travel and lodging.

In basketball, players have always been allowed two official visits to a school. The two visits cannot happen within the same academic year. The basketball official visit limit has been lifted, just like football’s. The NCAA seems intent on increasing the opportunities for visiting prospects to have as many opportunities to visit schools as possible without giving a school an unfair advantage over other schools. Like with football, unofficial visits will remain unrestricted.

Official visits for both football and basketball will still include travel spending, transportation, food, lodging, and some entertainment/recreational activities for the visiting player and two family members. The official visits will be limited to a “two-night stay,” as well. Long weekend recruiting visits will no longer be allowed.

With the changes not taking effect until July 1st, the late summer official visit lists are expected to be quite large for teams with big recruiting budgets. As of now, there is no limit set on how many different programs a recruit can visit, so it will be interesting to see if that changes as some student-athletes are sure to try to take 20 different official visits.

This rule change comes across as another barely-thought-through NCAA PR stunt. A rule change in favor of “players’ rights” sounds good on paper, but it could send the recruiting landscape into turmoil. More and more dollars from athletic department budgets will need to be spent on official visits now, and some prospects are going to leave home almost every weekend to see a new school just because they can.

The wild-wild-west of college football in the age of NIL and the transfer portal just got a little bit wilder, and it will be interesting to see what effects these rule changes will have long term.