Alabama Football: End of protracted ‘Dead Period’ will make for busy June
By Ronald Evans
Alabama Football: The COVID-caused NCAA Dead Period is expected to end on June 1, subject to an NCAA vote this week.
Alabama football is behind in its recruiting for the 2022 class. While being behind may frustrate the Alabama football staff, every other school faces the same challenge; a year-plus period of no in-person contact with recruiting targets.
Immediately after the NCAA Basketball Tournament was canceled last March, the NCAA imposed a recruiting dead period. It has been a Zoom-driven recruiting world since. The current Dead Period will last through May 31, but relief is expected this week.
"The NCAA Football Oversight Committee will recommend this week that the dead period transition to a “quiet period” on June 1."
The extended Dead Period has fundamentally changed recruiting. A small number of players have chosen to make unofficial visits to campuses. All of the expense of an unofficial visit must be paid by a recruit’s family. Coaching staff can have no contact with players during unofficial visits. According to NCAA rules, future student-athletes cannot even meet with academic advisors.
Not every school has been as patient as Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Notre Dame and LSU already have 10, 2022 verbal commits. Ohio State has 11. The Crimson Tide trails, based on the 247Sports Team Rankings with the currently No. 15 class. Alabama Football has five verbal commits for the 2022 class.
Nick Saban uses player camps as proving grounds for most of his signees. Few recruits, who have never ‘camped’ in Tuscaloosa, ever have committable offers. There were no summer camps last year due to COVID. If a new Quiet Period is approved, June and July will be filled with camps this summer.
A date for all regular recruiting activities to re-commence is not known. During Quiet Periods, all contact with players must take place on campus.
Another long-anticipated change could be given approval in April. Having been delayed twice, it is again expected the NCAA will approve the proposed ‘one-time transfer’ rule. It will allow players, on one occasion, to change schools, without having to sit out a season. Currently, transfers require sitting out a season, unless a waiver is granted by the NCAA. The waiver process and often perceived, arbitrary decisions have caused negative impressions of the NCAA.
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Should Alabama football fans expect an abundance of new verbal commitments in June and July? Recruits and coaches have, by necessity, been patient, but the 2022 list of Crimson Tide commits should grow rapidly before fall camp begins.