Get Started Now
Parents Start Here Athletes Start Here
Home > NCAA Eligibility Center > Recruiting Rules > Recruiting Calendar

2024-25 NCAA Recruiting Calendar and Recruiting Guide

IMG baseball player

The NCAA Recruiting Calendars outline when—and how—NCAA D1 and D2 college coaches can proactively start recruiting athletes. However, the dates don’t represent when student-athletes should start certain recruiting steps. As early as eighth grade, families begin researching colleges, evaluating what division level is best for their athlete, ensuring they are on the path to NCAA eligibility and even proactively reaching out to college coaches.

Overall, the NCAA Recruiting Calendars seek to protect elite athletes from receiving overwhelming amounts of communication from college coaches by designating certain time periods when coaches cannot contact athletes. The NCAA explains, “Recruiting calendars help promote the well-being of prospective student-athletes and coaches and ensure competitive equity by defining certain time periods in which recruiting may or may not occur in a particular sport.”

Insider Tip: No matter the time or date, you as a student-athlete can always initiate contact with a coach. The rules only enforce when coaches can initiate contact with you. Check out our tips for contacting college coaches.


READ MORE: A Parent’s Guide to Navigating Junior Year Recruiting

NCAA rules for high school athletes

The NCAA Recruiting Rules mandate the types of communication athletes can receive from college coaches based on the athlete’s year in high school. Just like college coaches, high school athletes need to be diligent about following the NCAA recruiting rules to avoid possibly disqualifying themselves from the recruiting process. 

How to use the NCAA Recruiting Calendars

Use the recruiting calendar alongside the NCAA Recruiting Rules. The NCAA Recruiting Calendars show the specific recruiting time periods throughout the year when coaches can contact athletes—and when coaches aren’t allowed to contact athletes.

Generally speaking, the most important dates on the calendar will be June 15 or September 1 (depending on your sport), going into the athlete’s junior year of high school. For most sports, this is when coaches can start reaching out to recruits. For more specific dates, find your sport-specific calendar below.

Key terms in the NCAA Recruiting Calendars

To better understand the NCAA Recruiting Calendars, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the following terms:

As you look through the NCAA Recruiting Calendar for your sport, keep an eye out for some of the particular days that stand out within each period. For example, you may have a quiet period from September 1 through November 25, but within that time span, there will be a designated number of evaluation days in which coaches can assess either your athletic or academic qualifications in person.

Find your sport at the DI or DII level

Quick Links

Division 1 Bowl Sub-division Football Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 Championship Sub-division Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 Baseball Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 Men’s Basketball Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 Women’s Basketball Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 Cross Country and Track & Field Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 Men’s Golf Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 Men’s Lacrosse Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 Women’s Lacrosse Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 Women’s Volleyball Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 Women’s Beach Volleyball Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 Softball Recruiting Calendar
Division 1 All Other Sports Recruiting Calendar
Division 2 Football Recruiting Calendar
Division 2 Men’s Basketball Recruiting Calendar
Division 2 Women’s Basketball Recruiting Calendar
Division 2 All Other Sports Recruiting Calendar

What is the NCAA recruiting guide?

The NCAA recruiting guide is a booklet of information distributed each year by the NCAA to help student-athletes, families, high school coaches and administrators understand the initial eligibility process for Division 1 and Division 2 schools. The guide provides resources, such as:

We recommend reviewing this information with your family and guidance counselor to ensure that you are checking off all the boxes to be academically eligible to compete in your sport at the next level. The NCAA Recruiting Guide contains the eligibility information for both Division 1 and Division 2 schools.

Division I Bowl Subdivision Football Recruiting Calendar

Division I Championship Subdivision Recruiting Calendar

Division I Baseball Recruiting Calendar

Division I Men’s Basketball Recruiting Calendar

For the men’s basketball recruiting evaluation periods, there are two different kinds of evaluation periods that take place. During the April evaluations, coaches can only evaluate recruits at NCAA-certified events. If you are on an AAU team or participating in a club basketball tournament at that time, chances are, it’s an NCAA-certified event. You can always double check if the event is NCAA-certified before you attend.

During the remainder of the evaluation periods, all live evaluations must take place at a regularly scheduled high school, prep school or two-year college tournament, practice or game. Again, it’s important to know when the evaluations can happen, but chances are, the coach will let you know when they plan to visit you during this time.

*A prospective student-athlete may not make an unofficial visit during the month of July unless he has signed a National Letter of Intent or the institution’s written offer of admission and/or financial aid, or the institution has received a financial deposit from the prospective student-athlete in response to an offer of admission

Division I Women’s Basketball Recruiting Calendar

The NCAA includes a special note for coaches, explaining that any evaluations that occur outside of July, count toward their allotted 112 total in-person recruiting days. Families don’t need to worry about the number of days coaches have to make in-person evaluations, but it’s important to know that evaluation days aren’t unlimited. Coaches have to choose who they will see, which means that they likely won’t just show up to your high school unannounced. Instead, they will probably contact you to arrange a day that works with both of your schedules.

Division I Men’s/Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field Recruiting Calendar

Division I Men’s Golf Recruiting Calendar

Division I Men’s Lacrosse Recruiting Calendar

Division I Women’s Lacrosse Recruiting Calendar

Division I Women’s Volleyball Recruiting Calendar

Division I Women’s Beach Volleyball Recruiting Calendar

Division I Softball Recruiting Calendar

The NCAA restricts which camps and clinics college softball coaches and their staff members are allowed to work at. The rules state that coaches and their staff members can only work at events off their campus if they take place during periods where evaluations are permitted at non-scholastic practices or competitions. This is something that coaches know to comply with, so families generally don’t have to worry about it. However, when looking at attending events for exposure, keep the evaluation periods in the back of your mind, and avoid attending off-campus camps or clinics during evaluation periods where coaches can only attend scholastic practices and competitions.

Division I All Other Sports Recruiting Calendar

We’ve listed out the dead and quiet periods for sports in which no recruiting calendar has been established. For those dates not part of the dead or quiet period, treat them like a contact period. 

Women’s gymnastics dead periods

Men’s ice hockey dead periods

Women’s ice hockey dead and quiet periods

Men’s soccer dead and quiet periods

Women’s soccer dead periods

Men’s wrestling dead periods

Women’s wrestling dead periods

All other sports

Division II Football Recruiting Calendar

Division II Men’s Basketball Recruiting Calendar

All dates not indicated below should be treated like a quiet period.

Division II Women’s Basketball Recruiting Calendar

All dates not indicated below should be treated like a quiet period.

Division II All Other Sports Recruiting Calendar

Treat all dates not called out here like a contact period.

Men’s and women’s wrestling dead periods

Other sports dead periods

© 2002-2024 NCSA College Recruiting All Rights Reserved Terms of Use Cookie Notice Privacy Policy California Privacy Rights Manage Privacy Settings