The NCAA Football Oversight Committee has recommended the football recruiting dead period be extended 3 ½ months to April 15, several sources tell CBS Sports. The date has been extended multiple times as COVID-19 has swept across the country in the last nine months. The current deadline is Jan. 1.
The NCAA Council is expected the approve move next week at its Nov. 18 meeting.
The football dead period -- when coaches cannot meet face-to-face with recruits -- was originally extended in March when the NCAA Tournament and spring sports were canceled. This next extension would mean coaches will not meet in person with recruits for more than a year.
However, a different -- some say, better -- recruiting culture has risen out of Zoom calls.
"It's as good as it can be without actually being here," Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said. "I will say Zoom has saved us. It's just more personal than it is on the phone or Facetime. I definitely think it will be involved in the future."
Since spring prospects have also been prohibited from making official visits on campus because of the coronavirus, there is momentum to expand the use of Zoom. For example, perhaps coaches could ask the NCAA to allow parents to interact on Zoom and compare notes about the recruiting process. That suggestion was made by Todd Berry, executive director of American Football Coaches Association.
"Everyone has become efficient at Zoom," Florida coach Dan Mullen said. "I'm great talking to the kids and all that. The coaches leaving campus, maybe you don't even go on the road recruiting anymore [in the future]. You can do it on Zoom. You can talk and have these conversations.
"[But] it's hard for me in a Zoom presentation to show what standing in the middle of The Swamp is like. … You're down here in Florida, November, December, January, February, it's palm trees. The actual beauty of our campus. You don't get that in a Zoom call.
"… I wonder, in the future, do they even let the coaches ever out on the road again?"
This year's traditional football signing dates in December 2020 and February 2021 will stay in place.
The NCAA Basketball Oversight Committees are also recommending a similar dead period through the end of their championship tournaments.
