Effective April 25, 2018, the NCAA has initiated new recruiting rules that will affect the way Division 1 college coaches may recruit prospective student-athletes during campus visits and college camps. Sports excluded from these new recruiting rules are Division 1 football, Division 1 basketball (both men and women) and Division 1 lacrosse (both men and women).

Here are the new recruiting guidelines:

1. Official visits: Official recruiting visits made by prospective student-athletes to college campuses may now begin September 1st of their junior year of high school. The old rule was on or after September 1st of their senior year.<
   
   Note: Division 1 college football remains the same with official visits beginning April 1st of the prospect's junior year through the end of June and then starting again September 1st of their senior year. Division 1 college basketball for men remains the same with official visits beginning January 1st of their junior year through the end of June, and then starting up again September 1st of their senior year. Division 1 college basketball for women remains the same with official visits beginning the Thursday after the NCAA D1 Championship game of the prospect's junior year through the end of June, and then starting up again September 1st of their senior year.


2. Recruiting by college coaches: College coaches are prohibited from having any recruiting discussions during camps prior to September 1st of the student-athlete's junior year of high school. Previously college coaches were permitted to make scholarship offers to sophomores and freshmen during their attendance at college camps.


3. Unofficial visits: College coaches and their respective athletics departments are not permitted to be involved or arrange any unofficial campus visits. An unofficial visit is when the student-athlete pays for the expenses of the visit as opposed to an official visit where the athletic department pays for the visit.


4. Division 1 Softball: Division 1 softball has instituted even more stringent rules whereby college coaches may not talk to recruits before September 1st of their junior year even if the athlete initiates the contact. College coaches are also prohibited from talking with high school or club team coaches before September 1st of the prospect's junior year. However, college coaches may express their interest in a particular prospect to the prospect's high school or club team coach as long as they do not engage in a discussion that may lead to an official offer or commitment.

How will these changes affect your recruitment as a prospective student-athlete?

The changes being initiated by the NCAA will have a greater impact on college coaches then they will on prospective student-athletes, but these new rules highlight the importance of starting the recruiting process as early as you can by researching college programs and gaining as much exposure as you can before your junior year. It is very important that by the time your junior year rolls around you are already high up on the radar screen with as much visibility and exposure as you can gain, making it that much easier for college coaches to identify you as a scholarship prospect for their programs.

How do the new rules affect PrepStar Athletes?

The new recruiting rule changes do not affect how PrepStar athletes or the services we provide at PrepStar are used by college coaches. In nothing else, these new rule changes actually enhance the services we provide for both college coaches and student-athletes alike! College coaches may continuing viewing our PrepStar recruiting profiles during these new recruiting blackout periods providing our athletes with valuable recruiting exposure that is vital to their success of being evaluated and ultimately recruited as scholarship prospects.

IMPORTANT!
If you are not currently enrolled with PrepStar and wish to see if you qualify as a PrepStar next-level prospect, please take a moment to create your recruiting profile in our prospect database. You may do so by clicking on the link shown below:

One of the most often asked questions we receive from student-athletes looking to play at the next level is in regards to college recruiting showcases.

Every year tens of thousands of high school and club team players attend college showcases for sports such as soccer, basketball, volleyball, softball, baseball, and Lacrosse. The typical college showcase will have well over 1,000 athletes competing with their travel ball teams, all vying to get noticed by the limited number of college coaches in attendance. The larger showcases will have up to 100 or more college coaches in attendance from various levels of D1, D2 and D3 college programs. Smaller events may have 50 or less college coaches in attendance.

One of the main factors student-athletes must consider is the cost for attending these types of events. The cost to participate in these events can become quite pricy when calculating in registrations fees, travel costs, lodging, meals, etc. A winning strategy is for each family to come up with an annual budget for college showcases and to wisely choose showcases that will meet your financial budget to attend these types of events.

College showcases are a great way to compete against some of the nation's top high school talent and the experience at these events can be very rewarding and helpful in your development as a young athlete. So, just based on the sheer competiveness of these types of events, we do feel it is a wise decision to attend as many showcases as you can without breaking the bank!

Having said that, we have found that trying to rely on college showcases to get recruited and receive an athletic scholarship is not a very sound strategy in and by itself. Most college coaches that attend these type of events already have developed recruiting lists of athletes they plan to watch. If college coaches aren't going to the showcase to watch you compete, there is a good chance you will go unnoticed.

A winning recruiting strategy is to make sure college coaches attending the showcases you will be competing at already have your recruiting profile along with any video highlights you may have.

Athletes that are enrolled as PrepStar prospects have a huge advantage when attending college showcases as PrepStar delivers their e-Profiles along with videos to all coaches in advance of each event. This gives coaches a reason to watch you perform in live competition. In addition, PrepStar delivers information on our athletes to hundreds of other college coaches that are not in attendance of each event for maximizing recruiting exposure.

As a result of PrepStar's extensive recruiting database of college coaches, PrepStar athletes receive 100% recruiting exposure nationwide, greatly increasing their chances of receiving athletic scholarships for college. PrepStar only accepts a limited number of highly qualified prospects per sport/per graduating class, ensuring that PrepStar prospects are all highly qualified as college-bound student-athletes.

If you are not currently enrolled with PrepStar and wish to see if you qualify as a PrepStar next-level prospect, please take a moment to create your recruiting profile in our prospect database. You may do so by clicking on the link shown below: