RECRUITING

Per NCAA legislation, recruiting is defined as any solicitation of a prospect or a prospect's relatives (or legal guardians) by an institutional staff member or by a representative of athletics interest (e.g., booster) for the purpose of securing the prospect's enrollment an ultimate participation in the university's intercollegiate athletics program.  
 
The two types of off-campus recruiting activities include:
1. Contact: any face-to-face encounter between a prospect or the prospect's parents, relatives or legal guardians and an institutional staff member or booster during which any dialogue occurs in excess of an exchange of a greeting.
2. Evaluation: any activity designed to assess the academic qualification or athletics ability or a prospect, including any visit to a prospect's educational institution (during which no contact occurs) or the observation of prospect participating in any practice or competition.
 
RECRUITING CALENDAR
Recruiting calendars help promote the well-being 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. Sport specific recruiting calendars can be found HERE.
 
RECRUITING PERIODS DEFINED
Recruiting calendars help promote the well-being 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. There are four distinct periods, contact, evaluation, quiet and dead period. These are defined below:
Contact Period: During a contact period a college coach may have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents, watch student-athletes compete and visit their high schools, and write or telephone student-athletes or their parents.
Evaluation Period: During an evaluation period a college coach may watch college-bound student-athletes compete, visit their high schools, and write or telephone student-athletes or their parents. However, a college coach may not have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents off the college’s campus during an evaluation period.
Quiet Period: During a quiet period, a college coach may only have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents on the college’s campus.  A coach may not watch student-athletes compete (unless a competition occurs on the college’s campus) or visit their high schools. Coaches may write or telephone college-bound student-athletes or their parents during this time.
Dead Period: During a dead period a college coach may not have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents, and may not watch student-athletes compete or visit their high schools. Coaches may write and telephone student-athletes or their parents during a dead period.
 
RECRUITING COMMUNICATIONS
Coaching staff member are permitted to communicate with prospective student-athletes through the following methods:
Telephone Calls:   The first permissible date to make telephone contact with a prospect  depends on the sport who is recruiting that prospect. In sports other than men's basketball, football and swimming & diving, the first permissible date to make telephone contact with a prospect is  September 1st at the beginning of their junior year in high school.  In men's basketball, the first permissible date to make telephone contact with a prospect is June 15th at the conclusion of their sophomore year in high school.  In the sport of football, a coach may place one telephone call to a prospect between April 15th and May 31st of their junior year in high school and any additional telephone  calls may not be placed until September 1st at the beginning of their senior year in high school. Lastly, swimming and diving may not place telephone calls to a prospect until July 1st following their junior year in high school.
Electronic Correspondence (e.g., emails, text messages, direct message on social media):  In all sports, the first permissible date to send electronic correspondence to a prospective student-athlete  is September 1st at the beginning of their junior year in high school.  
Recruiting Materials: In all sports, the first permissible date to send recruiting materials to a prospective student-athlete is September 1st at the beginning of their junior year in high school.  Types of recruiting materials that may be provided to a prospective student-athlete include:

• General Correspondence-  there are no restrictions on the design or content of general correspondence and attachments, except that the size of the printed material may not exceed 8.5 by 11 inches when opened in full.  There are no restrictions on the design or content of an envelope used to send general correspondence and attachments, except the size of the envelope may not exceed 9 by 12 inches.  
• Camp or Clinic Information- may be provided at any time.
• Questionnaire- may be provided at any time.
• Non-athletics Institutional Publications (e.g., official academic, admissions and student services publications published by the institutional and available to all students)- may be provided at any time.
• Educational Material Published by the NCAA (e.g., NCAA Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete)- may be provided at any time.

 
RECRUITING SERVICES
Basketball and Football: In basketball and football, a university may subscribe to a recruiting or scouting service involving prospects, provided the university does not purchase more than one annual subscription to a particular service and the service:

1. Is made available to all universities desiring to subscribe and at the same fee rate for all subscribers;
2. Publicly identifies all applicable rates;
3. Disseminates information (e.g., reports, profiles) about prospects at least four times per calendar year;
4. Publicly identifies the geographical scope of the service (e.g., local, regional, national) and reflects broad-based coverage of the geographical area in the information it disseminates;
5. Provides individual analysis beyond demographic information or rankings for each prospect in the information it disseminates;
6. Provides access to samples or previews of the information it disseminates before purchase of a subscription; and
7. Provides information regarding each prospect in a standardized format that ensures consistent distribution to all subscribers.  Live or individualized oral reports do not satisfy this requirement.
8. The recruiting or scouting service must be approved by the NCAA pursuant to an annual approval process. To learn more about the approval process, click here.

Sports other than Basketball and Football: a university may subscribe to a recruiting or scouting service involving prospects, provided the service is made available to all institutions desiring to subscribe and at the same fee rate for all subscribers.  The service must also provide information regarding each prospect in a standardized format that ensures consistent distribution to all subscribers (live or individualized oral reports do not satisfy this requirement).  The university is permitted to subscribe to a service that provides scholastic and/or non-scholastic video.  The university may not contract with a service in advance to have particular contest recorded or provided.
Video-Only Services: A university is permitted to use or subscribe to a video service that only provides video of prospects and does not provide information about or analysis of prospects. 
 
RECRUITING VISITS
Any visit to a college campus by a college-bound student-athlete or his or her parents paid for by the college is an official visit. Visits paid for by college-bound student-athletes or their parents are unofficial visits.
 
During an official visit the college can pay for transportation to and from the college for the prospect, lodging and three meals per day for both the prospect and the parent or guardian, as well as reasonable entertainment expenses including six tickets to a home sports event. Entertainment is restricted to a 30-mile radius from campus.
The only expenses a college-bound student-athlete may receive from a college during an unofficial visit are three tickets to a home sports event. Additionally, a coach may only accompany a prospect on campus or within a one-mile radius of campus borders. A map of that radius can be found HERE. (Link to the map you created.)
 
Recruiting visits to VT  are expected to serve the academic and athletic missions of the University while assuring public confidence in the integrity of the recruiting process.
The Virginia Tech Official Visit Guidelines and Expectations (Link to the attached PDF) is designed to establish a set of principles and regulations for the conduct of the recruiting process with full regard for reasonable and acceptable forms of behavior.
Coaches and staff members should contact the Compliance Office with any questions or concerns regarding the Policy or the recruiting process in general.
 
OFFICIAL VISIT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
OFFICIAL VISIT REQUEST
PROSPECT DECLARATION
STUDENT HOST FORM
TRANSPORTATION RECEIPT FORM
AD LETTER