The good news is COVID-19 vaccines are slowly bringing our country closer to a return to normality one day at a time. The bad news is “slowly” is the keyword here in that they’re not being rolled out fast enough. That being the case, the NCAA has decided it’s too risky for in-person recruiting to continue at this time. The Athletic is reporting that the NCAA has extended its dead period for all Division I sports through the end of May:
The NCAA's Division I Council is extending the recruiting dead period for all Division I sports through May 31, source tells @TheAthletic.
— Nicole Auerbach 😷 (@NicoleAuerbach) February 17, 2021
This means that whenever the dead period ends, recruits and coaches will, at the very least, have gone well over a year without being able to see each other in the flesh. That’s not good for recruits who can’t afford to make unofficial campus visits. Not every amateur athlete hoping to compete at the next level is able to travel around the country at will searching for their next opportunity. There’s no question whenever actual visits are allowed to resume, plenty of stories will be written about how the futures of so many talented athletes were affected by this pandemic.