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Thursday, February, 6

NCAA extends recruiting dead period again

Denton Stories

On Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Council voted to extend the current recruiting dead period — instituted in March due to the coronavirus pandemic — to a new end date of April 15, 2021. The dead period has been extended several times now and was most recently set to conclude Jan. 1 before the latest extension.

The Council also voted to allow more flexibility in football recruiting by “allowing all coaches, full-time school staff members and current students to conduct recruiting calls (telephone calls and video calls) without a countable coach being present.” This ruling includes volunteer coaches in the FCS division as well, and was proposed by the Football Oversight Committee.

As far as other sports are concerned, the Council said it plans to address similar flexibility for them at its December meeting, according to the release.

“The COVID-19 numbers are not trending in the right direction for the Council to allow in-person recruiting and the associated long-distance travel for coaches, prospective student-athletes and their families,” Division I Council Chair  M. Grace Calhoun said. “We acknowledge the impact the restrictions are having on prospective student-athletes and coaches alike, and we will continue to assess how to best balance health and safety concerns with the desire to support prospectives and coaches in the recruiting process.”

The North Texas Daily has previous coverage of the challenges posed by the recruiting dead period for North Texas softball, women’s golf and women’s basketball and how those teams are adapting to the unique circumstances.

Featured Image: The Mean Green runs out on the field for the game against Southern Mississippi on Oct. 3, 2020. Image by Zachary Thomas

Article Originally Published by John Fields on North Texas Daily

Source: North Texas Daily

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