RecruitMax
Article6 min read · Updated Oct 2026

NCAA recruiting periods, explained

Contact, quiet and dead periods and recruiting shutdowns: what coaches can and can’t do in each, and how Division I, II and III differ.

The NCAA decides when college coaches may recruit you in person. Your dashboard shows which period is in force today. This article explains what each one means for you.

Two different rules

Two separate rules decide what a coach can do, and it helps to keep them apart.

  • When coaches can first contact you. This depends on your graduation year. In Division I baseball it is August 1 before your junior year. Until that date, your dashboard counts down to it.
  • The recruiting calendar. Once coaches can contact you, each academic year (August 1 to July 31) is split into periods that say whether they may meet you in person, and where. The periods are the same for every athlete in your sport and division.
Good to know
Your dashboard only shows a period once your own contact date has passed. Before that, no coach may contact you at all, so the calendar doesn’t apply to you yet.

Contact Period

The most open period. Coaches can meet you and your family in person, on their campus or away from it: at your school, at your home, or at a game or showcase. They can also watch you practise and compete. Calls, texts and emails are allowed.

Pro tip
This is the time to tell coaches where you’re playing. Send your schedule early so they can plan to come and watch.

Quiet Period

Coaches can meet you in person only on their own campus. They can’t visit you at home or at school, and they can’t come to watch you compete somewhere else. You can still visit the campus and talk to the staff there. Calls, texts and emails are allowed.

Pro tip
A quiet period is a good time for a campus visit, because it’s the one place you can meet the coaches face to face. Each visit on your tracker gets its own prep checklist.

Dead Period

No in-person recruiting anywhere. Coaches can’t meet you on or off campus, can’t watch you compete, and can’t host you for an official or unofficial visit. They can still call, text and email you, and you can still write to them.

Good to know
Dead periods are usually short, often a few days around a signing date or a holiday.

Recruiting Shutdown

The strictest period: no recruiting of any kind. No visits, no in-person contact, no watching you compete, and no calls or messages either way. Recruiting picks up again the day the shutdown ends.

Good to know
Not every sport has shutdowns. Division I baseball has two short ones, around Thanksgiving and in late December.

When periods overlap

A dead period or a shutdown can fall in the middle of a longer contact or quiet period. For those days the stricter rule applies, and the longer period carries on afterwards. Your dashboard shows the period that applies today and the last day before it changes.

A year of Division I baseball

As an example, this is the 2026-27 Division I baseball calendar:

  • Contact periods: Aug 1–16, Sep 11–Oct 11, and Mar 1–Jul 31.
  • Quiet periods: Aug 17–Sep 10, and Oct 12–Feb 28.
  • Dead periods: Nov 9–12, Jan 7–10, May 31–Jun 7, Jun 19–21, and Jul 3–5.
  • Recruiting shutdowns: Nov 24–29 and Dec 22–27.

Division I

Division I has the most detailed rules. The NCAA publishes a separate calendar for each sport, so the dates above apply to baseball only; softball, volleyball, lacrosse, basketball, football and others each have their own. The date coaches can first contact you also differs by sport.

Some Division I sports use an extra period that baseball doesn’t have. In an evaluation period, coaches can watch you compete or visit your school to assess you, but they can’t have in-person contact with you away from their campus.

Division II

Division II is simpler. There is one calendar for all sports, with separate dates for football, and almost the whole year is a contact period. The exceptions are a few short dead periods, most of them around signing dates.

The first-contact date is earlier and the same for every sport: June 15 before your junior year. From then on, coaches can call and message you, meet you in person off campus, and offer official visits. They can send you recruiting materials at any time.

Division III

The NCAA doesn’t publish a recruiting calendar for Division III, so there are no contact, quiet or dead periods to track. Division III has its own rules about when coaches may contact you, and they differ from Division I and II. Ask the coach or the school’s athletics compliance office what applies to you.

What RecruitMax shows

Right now your dashboard shows the countdown and the current period for Division I baseball. The period comes from the NCAA’s published calendar for the year, which our team checks before it goes live. If the NCAA hasn’t published the calendar that covers today, your dashboard shows no period instead of guessing.

Good to know
This is a guide, not the rulebook. The NCAA can change dates during the year, and conferences and schools can add their own limits. If a decision depends on it, confirm with the coach or the school’s compliance office.
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