The College Football Recruiting Calendar: Dead Periods, Visits and Signing Days

By 4Football Staff · September 30, 2026 · 10 min read

How the recruiting calendar divides the year into contact, evaluation, quiet and dead periods, how official and unofficial visits work, and a typical timeline from sophomore year to signing.

A high school sophomore is standing in a stadium parking lot after a camp, and a college assistant coach gives him a friendly nod but does not stop to talk. A junior's father asks why a coach who was calling every week has suddenly gone silent. A senior wants to visit a campus on a Saturday in January and is told the staff is "not allowed to host visitors right now."

None of these coaches is being rude. They are following a calendar. College football recruiting is organized by a set of rules that decide when coaches may talk to prospects, when they may watch them play, when they may meet in person and when they must stay away. This guide explains that calendar: the four kinds of period, what each allows, how visits work, the typical path from a prospect's first camp to signing, and how to check the dates that apply to you.

One caution applies to everything below. The NCAA changes recruiting rules often, sometimes year to year, and the specific dates differ by division. This article explains the structure, which is stable, and tells you how to confirm the dates, which are not.

Why the calendar exists

Left unregulated, recruiting would become a year-round pursuit of ever-younger players, with coaches calling, texting and showing up at schools constantly. The NCAA's recruiting calendar has several goals:

• To give prospects and families stretches of time free of pressure.
• To limit the cost and time that coaches must spend chasing recruits, so that wealthy programs do not hold a permanent advantage.
• To protect the high school season, so college coaches are not pulling a player away from his own team in the fall.
• To keep the process orderly, with clear moments when contact is allowed.

The calendar is enforced through the schools and the NCAA. Violations are called recruiting infractions, and they can lead to penalties for the program. That is why compliance staff at colleges track every contact.

The four kinds of period

NCAA recruiting is built around four period types. Each defines what a coach may do with a prospect.

A few details are worth underlining.

• Dead periods are about in-person contact. Depending on the current rules about communication, calls, texts and direct messages can continue. A dead period does not mean a coach has stopped caring about a player.
• Quiet periods allow campus visits. If a prospect can get to a campus on his own, he can usually meet the coaching staff during a quiet period, though the staff cannot travel to meet him.
• Evaluation periods are when you see coaches at games and practices. They may not stop to talk beyond a brief greeting, which is not the same as rejection.
• Contact periods are the busiest. Coaches visit schools, talk with players, meet parents and deliver the message that a scholarship is on the table.

The football calendar places these periods in different parts of the year, and the exact dates are published each year by the NCAA for each division. During unusual times, the NCAA has also imposed long dead periods across all sports, such as during the pandemic. Those exceptions show how the calendar can be changed for the whole sport at once.

Communication: calls, texts and social media

Rules about how often and when coaches may call, text, email and direct-message prospects have been among the most heavily revised. In general:

• A prospect can usually contact a coach whenever he likes. A student can email a coaching staff or fill out a program's online questionnaire at any time, and the staff can reply with limited information.
• A coach's ability to initiate contact depends on the prospect's class year. In earlier eras the restrictions were tight. In recent years the NCAA has loosened limits on how often coaches may call and text, but the rules about when a coach may begin reaching out, and the content that can be sent, have not disappeared.
• Public posts are different from direct contact. Coaches may be allowed to like or comment on a public post in some cases and not in others, and the rules have shifted as social media has changed.

Because these rules are tweaked often, the best source is the athletics compliance office at the college, or a high school coach who has dealt with recruiting before. A family should not assume that a coach who does not respond is uninterested. He may be restricted from responding at that moment.

Visits: official and unofficial

A campus visit is one of the most important moments in recruiting, and the rules distinguish two types.

At the top level of Division I football, the traditional limit has been five official visits per prospect, to five different schools. The period in which those visits may occur, including the earliest date, has moved over the years. The window has been moved earlier in the school year in recent changes. Check the current NCAA rule for the year your prospect is in.

On an official visit, the athletics department usually arranges a tour, meetings with coaches and academic staff, meals with players, and sometimes attendance at a game. The college pays for the prospect's expenses within strict limits, and it may not give gifts beyond what the rules allow.

An unofficial visit is simpler. A prospect can visit a campus at his own expense, take a tour, meet staff when allowed and attend a game. Because there is no cost to the college, there is no limit on how many a prospect can make. Many prospects take a handful of unofficial visits before choosing where to take an official one.

Camps, junior days and other events

Between the formal periods, recruiting happens at events.

• Summer camps. Colleges host camps on their campuses where prospects practice in front of the staff. Camps are a main way for a coach to see an unfamiliar player and for a player to show he can compete at that level. The rules limit who may run them and what the college may charge. Our article on camps, combines and showcases discusses when they are worth the money.
• Junior days. Colleges invite a group of prospects, often juniors, to campus for a day of tours and meetings. They are typically a form of unofficial visit.
• Showcases and combines. Events run by third parties measure speed, jumps and other tests. College staff may attend, depending on the rules in effect.
• High school games. In the fall, coaches may be allowed to attend games or practices to evaluate players, depending on the period.

A player should treat these as chances to be seen and to learn about programs, not as guarantees of an offer.

A typical timeline

Every prospect's path is different, but many follow a similar order. The dates below are approximate and describe the usual shape, not exact rules.

Our article on how high school players get recruited by colleges goes into the prospect's side of this timeline, and the one on signing day and the commitment process covers the final stage.

Signing periods

The recruiting calendar ends in the signing periods, when prospects can formally sign with a school.

• The early signing period is a few days in December. Many top prospects sign then, which gives them certainty and gives schools a head start on filling their roster.
• The regular signing period begins in early February and runs for a longer stretch. Prospects who want more time, or who are still waiting for the right offer, sign then.
• A separate window for junior college prospects has historically existed too.

A verbal commitment before signing is not binding. A prospect can change his mind, and a college can pull back its offer. Only when the paperwork is signed is the arrangement formal. The paperwork itself has also changed over time, so ask the school what form of agreement a prospect will sign.

Early enrollment

Some seniors graduate high school in December and enroll in college in January. They attend classes, join workouts and participate in spring practice a semester earlier than their classmates. Early enrollment gives a player a head start, especially at positions where learning the playbook takes time. It also has costs: the player misses the second half of his senior year, including prom and graduation, and must meet his high school's graduation requirements early. It is a decision to make with a counselor and family.

The calendar by division

Different divisions use different calendars.

• Division I has the most elaborate calendar, with the periods described above.
• Division II has its own rules, with less restricted contact in many cases.
• Division III has fewer restrictions on contact and fewer limits on visits, but also no athletic scholarships.
• The NAIA and junior colleges have their own rules and calendars.

A prospect who is considering several levels should check the rules for each. Our guide to choosing a college level can help weigh the options.

What families can do to stay on track

1. Register early. Create an NCAA Eligibility Center account when your high school counselor recommends it, and keep the core-course plan on track. See our guide to the academic side of recruiting.
2. Ask each college which period it is in. A staff member can tell you what the coaches can and cannot do.
3. Do not read too much into silence. A quiet phone may reflect a dead period, not a lack of interest.
4. Keep a calendar of your own. Write down camp dates, junior days, official visit windows and signing dates.
5. Ask a trusted coach. Your high school coach or athletic director has likely seen the process before.
6. Beware of services that promise a scholarship for a fee. No service can buy an offer. Ask what the money pays for and what it cannot guarantee.
7. Use public information. Our college section and high school directory let you look up programs and schools.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the calendar is the same in every division.
• Taking a visit during a dead period without checking.
• Treating a verbal commitment as binding on either side.
• Letting a coach's silence be read as a rejection.
• Waiting until the last moment to register or to submit transcripts.

The short version

• The recruiting calendar has four kinds of period: contact, evaluation, quiet and dead.
• A dead period bans in-person contact, though other communication may still be allowed.
• Official visits are paid by the college and limited in number, while unofficial visits are paid by the family and are not.
• The traditional limit at the top level is five official visits, but the window for taking them has moved over the years.
• Camps, junior days and showcases are the main places where prospects are seen between formal periods.
• Signing happens in an early period in December and a regular period beginning in February, and a verbal commitment does not bind either side.
• Rules differ by division and change over time, so confirm with the college's compliance office.