Highlights from the football recruiting rules changes adopted Friday by the NCAA Division I Council:
- Contact at practice limited to once per preseason day. The move to eliminate “two-a-days” comes after another NCAA committee issued a blanket waiver to allow the football preseason to start up to a week earlier, though the maximum number of preseason practices remains 29.
- The recruiting calendar will include an early signing period in December beginning this year, pending an expected schedule change by the Collegiate Commissioners Association.
- Recruits can make official visits beginning April 1 through late June of their junior year in high school. Cannot occur in conjunction with a university’s camp or clinic.
- Bowl Subdivision schools barred from hiring people “close to a prospective student-athlete” for a two-year period before and after the student’s anticipated and actual enrollment (schools may honor contracts signed before Jan. 18, 2017).
- Bowl Subdivision schools limited to signing 25 prospective and current players to a first-time financial aid agreement or a National Letter of Intent. Exceptions: Current players who have been enrolled full-time at the school for at least two years and those who suffer an incapacitating injury (effective for recruits who sign after Aug. 1).
- Bowl Subdivision coaches and staff limited to participating in camps and clinics to 10 days in June and July at camps on a school’s campus or in facilities regularly used by the school for practice or play.
- Coaches employed at a camp or clinic may have recruiting conversations with participants. Educational sessions on initial eligibility standards, gambling rules, agent rules and drug regulations required.
- Bowl Subdivision schools may hire a 10th assistant football coach (effective Jan. 9).
- Adopted a proposal that would require graduate students to complete six degree-applicable hours each term to be eligible.
All changes are subject to final approval by the Division I Board of Directors, which meets April 26.
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Online:
NCAA rules changes: https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/di-council-adopts-new-football-recruiting-model
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