Question on college recruiting visits

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I'm sure this topic has been hacked to death, but I can't seem to recall any threads on the issue of "Official" vs. "Unofficial" college recruiting visits. It's been a LONG time since my recruitment days, but back then we were allowed 5 Official recruitment visits, and Official meant that the recruiting school made the arrangements for the prospective athlete to visit, including incurring some if not all of the costs (transportation, lodging, food). Are things the same now, or have they changed? Have a friend who's daughter was contacted by a school she very much wants to play for...after that coach telling the player's parent earlier this week that all 2012 roster openings had offers out to other players, that coach then emailed that player a few days later to ask her to come to the college for a visit. We are assuming an offer she had out may have been declined. I recommended that the player ask the coach "For any other future recruitment purposes, could you please let me know if I should consider this an official or unofficial visit?". Is that a good or bad idea to ask that? If the coach indicates she will report it as an official visit, what should this athlete expect?

Any help from those DD's or parents of DD's recently recruited, or any coaches on the site, would be REALLY appreciated!

 

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I follow football recruiting like crazy.........well used to before fastpitch......

Anyway, It really depends on the school. For instance, at tOSu in football they have a crazy close rate so they do not do a ton of officials. They only offer officials to players that they want and expect to sign. While Nebraska traditionally uses all there alloted official visits. They tend to carpet bomb the USA.......LOL.

I would think that if a team has offered you an OFFICIAL in a non-revenue sport I would expect an offer while at the school. But they may be waiting to see how she acts ect. And one never knows what the budget is for recruiting.

I would ask.

 

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good question and to add to it:

dd set up a visit to a school (unofficial) in the mean time called the coach to let her know she will be visiting on x day. Coach said I will call and let them know to have you come see practice and me.

we fully expect this to be an unofficial visit but since we called the coach and are going to watch practice does this change the "unofficialness" of it? I think no b/c we are footing the bill ourselves and not accepting anything while on campus but want to make sure

 

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Here is the NCAA's definition of official visit (http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/Issues/Recruiting/recruiting+glossary+of+terms):

Official visit is a prospective student-athlete?s visit to a college campus paid for by the college. The college can pay for transportation to and from the college, room and meals (three per day) while visiting and reasonable entertainment expenses, including three complimentary admissions to a home athletics contest. NCAA recruiting bylaws limit the number of official visits a recruit may take to five.


Here are the NCAA recruiting guidelines and rules on visits (http://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/ncaa-recruiting-rules-contact-visits.htm):

NCAA Recruiting Guidelines, Unofficial Visits:

You can make unofficial visits to a college campus.
It is also permissible for you to receive a maximum of three complimentary tickets to a college sporting event.
You can talk with college coaches but this must be on campus.

Senior Year

You can make up to five Official - expense paid visits to college campuses. the visit to the campus cannot be longer than forty eight hours in duration. you are are not allowed to have an official visit until after your first day of classes of your senior year.

College coaches need to have an official ACT or SAT score and a copy of your official high school transcript before you can make a visit.

 

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thank you, thank you, thank you (to all, but especially SoCal Dad!). Those passages cleared up a lot of questions for me, and sounds like not a lot has changed in the 20+ years since I was doing my visits. If anyone else has more to add, we'd love to hear it!

 

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I'm pretty certain for Div. II that the limit of five official visits has been eliminated and there is no limit now. Not sure if that's true for other divisions.

 

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I'm pretty certain for Div. II that the limit of five official visits has been eliminated and there is no limit now. Not sure if that's true for other divisions.

You're right, looks like Div II eliminated their limit on Jan 15, 2011 (effective Aug 1, 2011). The Div I manual still has a limit of 5 and the Div III manual has no limit.

Div I:

13.6 OFFICIAL (PAID) VISIT
13.6.1 Institutional Policies. ...
13.6.2 Limitations on Official Visits.
13.6.2.1 One-Visit Limitation. A member institution may finance only one visit to its campus for a prospective student-athlete.
13.6.2.2 Number of Official Visits?Prospective Student-Athlete Limitation. A prospective student-athlete may take a maximum of five expense-paid visits, with not more than one permitted to any single institution. This restriction applies regardless of the number of sports in which the prospective student-athlete is involved and only for expense-paid visits to Division I or II institutions. (Revised: 1/12/04)
13.6.2.2.1 First Opportunity to Visit. A prospective student-athlete may not be provided an expense-paid visit earlier than the opening day of classes of the prospective student-athlete?s senior year in high school. [D] (Revised: 11/1/01 effective 4/1/02, 4/3/02, 8/5/04, 4/28/05, 5/12/05)
13.6.2.2.2 July Evaluation Periods?Women?s Basketball. In women?s basketball, an institution may not provide an expense-paid visit to a prospective student-athlete during the July evaluation periods (see Bylaw 13.1.5.4.2). (Adopted: 4/28/05 effective 8/1/05, Revised: 6/28/06)
13.6.2.3 Post-High School Visits. ...

Div II:

13.6.1 Limitations on Official Visit.
13.6.1.1 One-Visit Limitation. A member institution may finance only one visit to its campus for a prospective student-athlete.
13.6.1.2 First Opportunity to Visit. A prospective student-athlete may not be provided an expense-paid visit earlier than the opening day of classes of the prospective student-athlete?s senior year in high school. [D] (Revised: 1/10/05, 6/22/11)
13.6.1.3 Post-High School Visits. ...

Div III:

13.6.1 Limitations on Official Visit.
13.6.1.1 One-Visit Limitation. A member institution may finance only one visit to its campus for a prospective student-athlete. (Revised: 1/9/06)
13.6.1.1.1 First Opportunity to Visit. A prospective student-athlete may not be provided an official visit earlier than the opening day of classes of the prospective student-athlete's senior year in high school.
13.6.1.2 Post-High School Visits. ...

 

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Unless the daughter is a pitcher, a DI school is unlikely to offer a full scholarship. You mentioned it is a school that she is very interested in. Because of that, I would not play around too much. She is about to enter her senior year in high school. She does have time, but not really that much. Go to the school and see what happens. Visit four or five does not really matter at this point, at least from the information that you have supplied. The NFCA offers a very good book on their website about college recruiting.

 

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If a certain coach is even remotely interested, there is nothing stopping a kid from visiting campus on their own nickel, without an invitation. If I'm not mistaken, a prospective student can visit a campus as many times as they like. Just visit when the coach is most likely to be there, and have an adviser make arrangements for a meeting. It's when the visit is initiated by the coach that you have to be careful - and "keep count".

To be absolutely sure, just call the compliance department at the school, and explain your situation. They are usually more than happy to assist - after all, it's their job to proactively prevent situations where there could be a violation. They certainly don't want to lose a prospective student-athlete!

 

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Curious if this would be a violation.........A friends DD just told me that she is going to visit a school in Michigan, who is "looking at" her for Bball, also said she got tickets for some game there (I think it was a football game).

She is entering her Freshman year. She's pretty good but I can't imagine coaches seriously looking that closely at someone at her age.

Anyway, would this be a violation (because its not her Sr. year) or will it count towards the number of times she can visit?

 

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If a certain coach is even remotely interested, there is nothing stopping a kid from visiting campus on their own nickel, without an invitation. If I'm not mistaken, a prospective student can visit a campus as many times as they like. Just visit when the coach is most likely to be there, and have an adviser make arrangements for a meeting. It's when the visit is initiated by the coach that you have to be careful - and "keep count".

To be absolutely sure, just call the compliance department at the school, and explain your situation. They are usually more than happy to assist - after all, it's their job to proactively prevent situations where there could be a violation. They certainly don't want to lose a prospective student-athlete!

You are so right and when you get there they coach can offer you, tell you and explain everything you want to know. you can call her/him but they cannot call you back. But you can let them know when you are calling so that they will answer the phone . The one post said unless you are a pitcher there is no full ride for D1; Players are getting it for hitting too.