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NCAA Recruiting Definitions

In order to avoid rules violations which might deny you of your college eligibility, you must understand what the rules are and how they apply to you. Below are basic definitions to brush up on courtesy of the NCAA.

Contact period - permissible for authorized athletic department staff members to make in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts and evaluations. Division III coaches cannot recruit off campus so these rules do not apply to every school.

Dead period - not permissible to make in-person recruiting contacts or evaluations on- or off-campus or permit official or unofficial visits.

Evaluation period - permissible for authorized athletics department staff to be involved in off-campus activities to assess academic qualifications and playing abililties. No in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts with a prospect are permitted.

Quiet period - permissible to make in-person recruiting contacts only on the member institution's campus. Detailed information about recruiting is available in the online edition of the NCAA Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete.

Official Visit- Division I

During your senior year, you can have one expense-paid (official) visit to a particular campus. You may receive no more than five such visits. This restriction applies even if you are being recruited in more than one sport. You can't have an official visit unless you have given the college your high-school (or college) academic transcript and a score from a PSAT, an SAT, a PACT Plus or an ACT taken on a national test date under national testing conditions. Your academic transcript may be a photocopy of your official high-school (or college) transcript. [Note: In this instance, the Division I school may use the services of the Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse to validate your credentials.]

The complimentary admissions you receive may provide you seating only in the facility's general seating area. You may not be given special seating (e.g., press box, bench area). In addition, a student host may help you (and your family) become acquainted with campus life. The host may spend $30 per day to cover all costs of entertaining you (and your parents, legal guardians or spouse); however, the money can't be used to purchase souvenirs such as T-shirts or other college mementos. Additionally, during a campus visit, the school may provide you with a student-athlete handbook.

Official Visit – Division II

Official Visits
During your senior year, you can have one expense-paid (official) visit to a particular campus. You may receive no more than a total of five such visits. This restriction applies even if you are being recruited in more than one sport. A college may not give you an official visit unless you have provided it with a PSAT, ACT or SAT score from a test taken on a national testing date under national testing conditions.

Official Visit Division III

During your senior year, you can make one expense-paid (official) visit to a particular campus; however, there is no limit on the number of campuses that you may visit if you initially enroll in a Division III college.

During your official visit (which may not exceed 48 hours), you may receive round-trip transportation between your home (or high school) and the campus, and you (and your parents) may receive meals, lodging and complimentary admissions to campus athletics events. All meals provided to you (and/or your parents) on an official visit must occur in an on-campus dining facility that the college's students normally use. If dining facilities are closed, the college is permitted to take you off-campus for meals. In addition, a student host may help you (and your family) become acquainted with campus life. The host may spend $20 per day to cover all costs of entertaining you (and your parents, legal guardians or spouse); however, the money can't be used to purchase college souvenirs such as T-shirts or other college mementos.

Finally, a Division III college is permitted to provide you and your high-school and/or two-year college coach any official academic, admissions, athletics and student-services publications published by the college and other general information available to all students.

Unofficial Visit

Student athletes eligibility guidelines are too lengthy to list here as they differ for Division I, II and III.Your best bet for the details are to visit http://www.ncaa.org/eligibility/cbsa/academic.html this link will bring you right to the source