Division I is close to announcing the “reopening” of college athletics recruiting -- is your Division I institution ready to reopen its summer doors?
Athletics Veritas is a weekly series aimed at helping higher education executives, faculty, and other stakeholders stay tuned in on trending national issues impacting college athletics, especially NCAA Division I. Athletics Veritas is created by senior DI athletic administrators around the nation.
NCAA Division I is close to announcing the “reopening” of college athletics recruiting -- is your Division I institution ready to reopen its summer doors?
Executive Summary
All NCAA arrows point to Tuesday June 1, 2021, as the date to reopen college athletics recruiting
In-person recruiting contact with prospects has been prohibited since April 2020 due to the pandemic
Thousands of high school prospects and their families eagerly await the opportunity for more interaction with college coaches to jumpstart the stalled recruiting process
In the coming weeks, Division I coaches and athletics staff will be looking to university leadership for guidance as it relates to hosting youth camps and clinics as well as in-person recruiting visits on campus
Universities will be threading together Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), state, and local health and safety guidelines, including camp group sizes, temperature check protocols, physical distancing, and the like
Minors on campus & youth protection protocols are also a critical piece to camps management during a pandemic
Earlier this month, the Division I Council discussed preliminary feedback from several NCAA committees regarding how to resume recruiting activities safely and effectively at the conclusion of the temporary dead period.
The Council generally agreed that a return to some level of in-person recruiting activity on June 1 is anticipated. The standing committees will continue to refine their recommendations in advance of the April 14-15 Council meeting, during which the Council is expected to make final determinations regarding permissible recruiting activities that may occur after May 31. It's even possible the Council makes a decision before mid-April.
Part of the discussion leading up to the reopening is whether all sports will undertake a uniform yet modified re-entry into recruiting -- essentially, taking baby steps before walking and eventually running in terms of returning to pre-pandemic recruiting interactions, frequency, and calendar. Many college coaches regardless of sport are pining for the restart of their summer camps and clinics. These events serve two primary purposes: they allow college coaches to see, teach, and evaluate prospects during camps or clinics, which are engagements with prospects that are longstanding exceptions to the NCAA rules prohibiting tryouts; and, second, they generate revenue and provide supplemental income for head coaches and others on their staff such as volunteer coaches and graduate assistants.
However, sports like football, women’s basketball, and men’s basketball have reported interest in skipping any modified, stair-stepped approach in favor of allowing their sports to restart recruiting at full capacity under those sports' NCAA recruiting rules and recruiting calendars, as codified irrespective of pandemic realities. For example, in men’s basketball, a longstanding bedrock to recruiting for coaches has been attending and evaluating prospects at off-campus, NCAA-certified events each July. These events feature thousands of prospects men’s basketball coaches can evaluate in-person, a recruiting luxury that has been lost for the past year due to the pandemic.
Recruiting-wise, what exactly has been prohibited the last 12-plus months?
Coaches have not been able to host camps and clinics;
Coaches have not been able to evaluate prospects at any off-campus athletics events (e.g., club tournaments; high school games; AAU events);
Coaches have not been able to have in-person, off-campus contact with prospects and their families at the prospects’ homes, high schools, or elsewhere; and
Prospects have not been able to take official (expenses paid) or unofficial visits (self-financed) to Division I campuses where they could fully interact with coaches, tour campus athletics facilities, meet with current student-athletes, watch practices, meet with other athletics staff, attend an athletics event with coaches, etc.
The Division I Council is looking at one of the following outcomes for its mid-April decision on reopening recruiting:
Permitting all sports to return to their sport-specific recruiting calendars;
Permitting all sports to follow a uniform recruiting model until August 1, 2021, and, if applicable, follow more restrictive sport-specific recruiting periods; or
Permitting all sports other than basketball and football to follow a uniform recruiting model until August 1, 2021, and allow basketball and football to develop their own sport-specific models.
The CDC has generated a deep catalogue of guidelines and best practices for operating any type of youth-based camp, sports or otherwise. The CDC’s recommendations include mitigating tactics like staggered scheduling of activities to minimize group sizes, operating in smaller groups, promoting hand hygiene, adding preventative messaging and signs around facilities, cleaning and sanitizing between events and activities, as well as continued physical distancing and mask wearing by camp participants.
Also tangential to summer camps and clinics held on college campuses, the American Association of University Professors published its set of guidelines related to campus reopenings and, in particular, the roles faculty and faculty unions can play in their campuses’ reopening with particular focus on curriculum, instruction and delivery.
In the youth protection space, Healthychildren.org, a division of the American Academy of Pediatrics, published a list of key questions parents and guardians should have at the ready when assessing the readiness of youth camps (including sports camps) in a pandemic-world. Some of the key camp operational questions for parents to ask include:
What happens if someone gets sick?
How will campers move throughout the day at camp?
How will snacks and meals work?
What extra steps are being taken at overnight camps?
Should my child be tested for COVID-19 before or during camp?
The above probing questions supplement some of the primary youth protection measures such as criminal background checks of camp employees and safety and staffing protocols for on-campus residence halls for overnight camps.
At many colleges and universities, in-person activities involving children on campus were suspended as a result of the pandemic pursuant to university directives restricting any in-person activities and in-person events were alternatively steered toward virtual programming platforms.
In less than a week, the 2021 calendar turns to April. By mid-April, the Division I Council will likely have decided the fate of NCAA Division I’s summer recruiting landscape, including the reinstatement of summer camps.
Locally, leaders on Division I campuses should be assessing whether their campuses will be “open” for the purposes of youth camps, clinics, and other extended in-person, on-campus activities, such as athletic recruiting visits and, if so, under what guidelines and directives. Other key questions on college athletics recruiting and university policies also need resolution, such as whether university employees’ travel restrictions -- including limits on coaches’ recruiting travel -- will remain in place or be lifted.
With final exams and commencements also in focus this spring, university leaders need to be aware that their Division I coaches and support staff across campus are likely planning (as you read this) for recruiting to kick back into gear in about eight weeks. It would be prudent for university leaders to connect now with their campus health and safety directors, COVID-19 task forces, commissions, or other designees to drill down on if, when, and how youth camps, clinics, recruiting visits, and employee travel could work by the first Tuesday of June to ensure campus-wide alignment.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
