The NCAA has made it clear, recruiting has been suspended for all sports until April 15th, at least.
This means schools will not be able to host official and unofficial visitors during this time period, also any kind of evaluations. Coaches are to be off the road during this time as well.
The SEC and a few other conferences had already put this into motion on Thursday, but the NCAA has officially made it clear. There are schools that have already cancelled spring football games and practices. As of 2:30 ET on Friday, Tennessee had yet to make a decision regarding these events, though Athletic Directors around the conference have been involved in discussions all day.
In a move made on Thursday, the NCAA cancelled all championships involving spring and winter sports. Which was shocking to many, especially since the College World Series doesn’t take place until June.
This news was taken hard by the student athletes who participate in these sports, especially if their playing time was extremely cut. Most players were hoping the NCAA would potentially grant them a “Mulligan”, meaning they could get this year back towards their NCAA limit on years.
Then some good news broke.
This essentially means that the baseball and softball players would get a year put back on their clock. Players would have the ability to come back to their school next season. Things still need to be worked out, like scholarship limits, roster count and many more obstacles.
People with knowledge of the situation have also said that they will be reviewing “Winter Sports” as well, meaning College Basketball players have a shot at getting a year back. This will be the interesting one to watch, because most of these players weren’t allowed to play in their conference tournaments and some in the NCAA Tournament.
However this plays out, at least the NCAA is being proactive in trying to help the student athletes out and do the right thing. That is something we cant say they have had a good track record with.
