Recruiting Calendar Overview
UCLA Recruiting Analyst Branden Jones goes over the recruiting calendar for colleges.
While 2020 has been anything but a normal year, this is a typical recruiting calendar for the FBS level. There is a similar calendar for FCS, Division II, and Division III. The key dates as a high school coach are the blue “Evaluation Period” slots. This is when coaches are allowed to be on the road and visit your campus for an athletic evaluation, such as spring ball in April/May and fall practices in September, October, and November. Along with sending prospect lists, send detailed schedules of all lifts/practices during this time of the year as coaches will try to hit multiple schools in a day to maximize their efforts. Getting coaches to your practices/workouts not only benefits your players, but also helps promote your program to prospective student-athletes as your school is recognized and visited by college coaches. If a coach is making the effort to come to your campus, have your prospect list and transcripts printed, along with film ready to go if he wants to/has the time to watch it. In addition, some high schools have the roster size and resources to conduct a spring game; however, any program can do some sort of spring showcase near the end of spring ball that consists of combine style testing and individual work to not only give coaches a full picture of your prospects, but also create some competition amongst your roster and provide tangible data of your kids.
While 2020 has been all over the map and 2021 is still in flux, the NCAA currently has the dead period ending on April 15. In theory, this would allow college coaches to go on the road and visit your program. Could this date change, absolutely. Could your local jurisdiction, county, high school governing body still not allow workouts at that point, absolutely. There is a long time between now and then, but start planning on this possibility to showcase/market remaining 2021 prospects and the 2022-2024 recruiting classes. Identify the recruiting point person for regional programs and/or the position coach with a recruiting area that is where your school is located.