In an effort to makes things easier on potential student-athletes, the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Experience Committee has endorsed potential changes to recruiting that could change the way recruiting is done in the SEC.

Most notably, the committee seems interested in curbing the recruitment of prospects younger than high school juniors. Including the prevention of hosting sophomores and younger prospects from coming on unofficial visits, the recruitment of these prospects at camps and/or clinics and allowing juniors to take official visits — right now, only seniors are allowed to take official visits to schools.

Keep in mind these are only recommendations at this time and the changes still need to be voted on by the Division I Council in April in order to become new rules, but after receiving feedback from 2017 prospects, the committee has recommended the following changes to recruiting of athletes at the Division I level.

  • Unofficial visits, which now have no restrictions on their dates for most sports, would not be permitted until Sept. 1 of prospective student-athletes’ junior year. This change aims to encourage the decision-making process for both prospective student-athletes and colleges and universities to occur at a time when academic and athletic preparedness can be more accurately considered.
  • A coach or school would not be able to engage in recruiting conversations with a prospective student-athlete at an athletic camp or clinic until Sept. 1 of the student’s junior year in high school. Additionally, the committee noted all participating athletes should have a uniform camp or clinic experience, and coaches should not be able to pull aside prospects for recruiting conversations or activities until their junior year in high school.
  • Official visits, now prohibited until prospective student-athletes’ senior year of high school, would be allowed to begin Sept. 1 in their junior year. Today, these visits are often made after a student already has committed to a particular school, preventing the official visit from being part of the decision-making process. The change aims to emphasize the official visit in the recruiting process and better align them with the timing of visits taken by the general student body.

What do you think of these rules? Should student-athletes, and more importantly, schools and coaching staffs have to wait until prospects’ junior season to ramp up their college recruitments?