Recruiting has changed

If you are working from advice that is a few years old, some of it is now wrong.

The timeline moved

NCAA Division 1 tightened its rules to stop programs contacting athletes in their early high school years. Each sport has its own date before which a Division 1 coach cannot hold recruiting conversations with you. If a Division 1 program goes quiet, that is usually a coach following the rules rather than a coach passing.

Division 3 and NAIA programs are not under the same restriction and can talk to you now. So can Division 2, on a different timetable. If you are waiting for permission to start, you are probably waiting on a rule that does not apply to most of the programs on your list.

Either way the early work is one-directional. You can write to a coach long before they can write back, and they keep those notes.

The transfer portal changed who you are competing with

Roster spots that used to go to high school seniors are now often filled by experienced college athletes moving between programs. A coach filling a position may be choosing between a graduating senior and a player with two seasons of college minutes already behind them.

That is a real headwind, and the honest response to it is to widen the list of programs you are talking to rather than narrow it.

What still works

• Keep contacting coaches. The rules limit what they can send you, not what you can send them.
• Research more programs than feels necessary. The right fit is frequently a school you had not considered.
• Go to their camps. A college ID camp puts you in front of that specific staff, on their field, for a whole day.