2024-25 NCAA Recruiting Calendar and Recruiting Guide

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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.

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.

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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