Coronavirus pandemic once again forces NCAA to extend recruiting dead period

There are a lot of fish to fry. A lot to unpack at every turn towards reopening the country following the shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

One thing that doesn’t seem to be in the hopper, however, is lifting the recruiting dead period by the NCAA Division I Council Coordination Committee. They extended the dead period of recruiting all the way through the end of July this past week.

“The extension maintains consistent recruiting rules for all sports and allows coaches to focus on the student-athletes who may be returning to campus,” Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, University of Pennsylvania athletics director, said in a statement. “The committee is committed to reviewing the dead period again in late June or early July.”

It was released that their previous dead period lengthening was set to June 30, but has now come down that it won’t be until August that college coaches can meet with recruits in person.

It’s also interesting to note that this past week, Division II coaches were told that they can recruit in-person during the month of June, so long as local health guidelines allowed.

This also came after the NCAA permitted voluntary athletic activities to resume in June for football as well as men’s and women’s basketball.

Perhaps it’s to allow the college coaches focus on those actual players that are returning to campuses in June. Focus on returning their staff healthy as well as keeping their student-athletes healthy during the next month as we continue to softly reopen not only collegiate athletics but essentially the entire infrastructure of the country.

Calhoun also issued a statement on the return of athletics activities a week ago.

“The return of voluntary activity in addition to the extension of the waiver to allow virtual, nonphysical activity shows sensitivity to local, state and regional differences in how Division I campuses are reopening,” Calhoun said in her statement last week. “We will continue to be considerate of these differences with wise and flexible administration of our regulations, and we expect schools to keep the well-being of student-athletes as a priority.”

It all remains to be seen how this shakes out but with mixed messages being sent out between Division I and Division II as well as the return of activities but no recruiting, it’s a bit of an uneasy feeling.