D1 football coaches can send athletes recruiting questionnaires, camp brochures and non-athletic institutional publications freshman and sophomore year. Most other contact begins September 1 of the athlete’s junior year, according to the NCAA football recruiting rules.
Junior Year:
September 1: Athletes can receive any form of private, electronic communication. This includes emails, recruiting materials, texts and direct messages on social media.
April 1 through the Sunday before the last Wednesday in June: A college may pay for a prospective student-athlete and two family members to visit campus. After this date, a college may offer an expense-paid visit after Sept. 1 of senior year.
April 15 through May 31: A coach may call a prospective student-athlete one time during this period.
Senior Year:
July 1 before senior year: Coaches can contact athletes off-campus, but only during the contact periods. Coaches are only allowed six off-campus contacts with each student-athlete.
First day of classes: Athletes can take official visits, using a maximum of five.
September 1: Coaches can call athletes once a week after this time, and they can call recruits unlimited times during the contact period.
Evaluation days: Coaches can evaluate each recruit three times. They can take one evaluation per recruit in the fall, and then two evaluations from April 15 to May 31.
The NCAA football recruiting rules for Division 2 are the same across all sports. For football, the rules are slightly more relaxed than those for Division 1:
Any time: Athletes can receive brochures for camps, recruiting questionnaires, NCAA materials and non-athletic recruiting publications.
June 15 after sophomore year: Athletes can begin taking official visits. Coaches can also communicate with recruits electronically (via private texts, social media DMs, instant messages, etc.). Athletes are able to receive calls from coaches, and coaches can conduct in-person, off-campus recruiting contact. Finally, after this date, coaches can approach a recruit’s coach at a competition (game, camp, etc.) throughout the contact periods.
Evaluations: Coaches are not restricted in how many times they can evaluate a student-athlete at the D2 level. Coaches just have to make sure that they don’t communicate with the recruits until their practice/competition has ended and they’ve been released by their coach or the proper authority.
D3 and NAIA colleges are generally left to create their own recruiting rules and schedules. They don’t have limits on when coaches can contact recruits. The only standardized rule for D3 schools is that coaches are not allowed to meet with recruits or their families off-campus until the athlete has completed their sophomore year of high school.