facebook-pixel

NCAA extends recruiting dead period to the end of May

FILE - In this March 18, 2015, file photo, the NCAA logo is displayed at center court as work continues at The Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, for the NCAA college basketball tournament. The NCAA took a significant step toward allowing all Division I athletes to transfer one time without sitting out a season of competition. A plan to change the waiver process is expected to be presented to the Division I Council in April, 2020. If adopted, new criteria would go into effect for the 2020-21 academic year and be a boon for athletes in high-profile sports such as football and men's and women's basketball. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

  | April 1, 2020, 9:09 p.m.

As expected, the NCAA announced Wednesday it has extended the recruiting dead period through May 31. The college sports governing body originally instituted a dead period through April 15. That initial announcement came on March 13, the day after the NCAA Tournament, the remainder of winter championships and all spring championships were cancelled.

A dead-period extension through May 31 affects different sports in different ways. The big losers here are football coaches. Under normal circumstances, the football calendar would have an evaluation period from April 15-May 31. There are obviously no actual games, but coaches are allowed to watch prospects work out at camps and showcase. The next football evaluation period comes in September.

Men's basketball coaches lose six evaluation days in the month of April, while women's staffs lose 11 evaluation days through May 17.

One underlying factor to consider with no face-to-face recruiting contact is the need for transfers to make decisions, potentially without seeing a campus. Those transfers include outgoing Utah freshman center Matt Van Komen, who went into the NCAA Transfer Portal on March 21, and has been contacted by upwards of 20 schools since.