Unfortunately, COVID-19 has changed the normal in today’s world. 

Among many other things, it has changed college recruiting for the class of 2021 and 2022, and there’s a chance to add 2023 to that list. When the Coronavirus was classified a pandemic in March, many seasons were cancelled, and the recruiting dead period was put in place per the NCAA. This meant that colleges can’t go watch games, they can’t attend or host camps, they can’t do any in-person recruiting. Colleges are only able to email, text, call, and watch video. 

Due to sports getting cancelled, the NCAA gave every college athlete an extra year of eligibility. This means that athletes can stay at college and play another year of their sport. This makes the recruiting process more difficult because the result of athletes playing the extra year means that spots are being taken away from the upcoming graduating class.  

I’m going to play baseball in college. The recruiting process has been completely out of the normal. I’ve sent emails to colleges and the reply I receive is the coach telling me that they are interested, but they don’t have any more open spots this year due to the extra year of eligibility. Another reply I get is colleges asking me for a schedule because they want to see me play, but with the pandemic a lot of my tournaments got cancelled and the camps got cancelled due to the dead period. I’d like to say, “The class of 2021 got screwed”. 

NCAA Division One: Dead Period got extended to the end of 2020 on September 15th

NCAA Division Two: Dead Period ended August 31st

NCAA Division Three: There was no Dead Period

Congratulations to all of the athletes that have found a place to play. These times are difficult.