Based on an announcement from the NCAA last week, it seems the pre-eminent organization in collegiate sports is leaning toward extending its coronavirus-induced ban on in-person recruiting through the month of June. We won't know for sure until Wednesday, but that's the way the NCAA is leaning.
But not every college sports organization feels the same way.
On Monday night, the National Junior College Athletic Association announced, effective 11:59 p.m. on Friday, May 15, its prohibition on in-person recruiting will be over.
That doesn't necessarily mean all NJCAA schools can resume in-person recruiting on Saturday, it just means the NJCAA will no longer be among the authorities standing in each school's way.
"With the dead period lifted from the national office, individual regions are permitted to implement rules and restrictions as necessary and in accordance with state and local regulations, otherwise it is a college-by-college decision to enforce necessary rules regarding enforcement," Monday night's statement read.
The NJCCA is a confederation of six conferences plus 10 independents, spread from Texas to the Northeast.
While each coaching staff would still be at the mercy of their conference, community college administration as well as state and local governments, junior college coaches will, in theory, be free to conduct visits with prospects and, more importantly, host them on campus.
Working up the food chain, NJCCA schools could, in theory, be able to host camps (again, provided they can pull them off while in accordance with state and local government social-distancing guidelines). If NCAA schools are able to host camps, they could attracted large numbers of their socially-distanced colleagues from four-year universities.
Even if the NCAA maintains its dead period through the end of June, it would be hard to enforce, say, a hypothetical FBS or FCS head coach driving on his own time to observe a JuCo camp and then drive home. Or, to circumvent that, JuCo schools could just film their own camps and distribute that tape to their friends at higher levels. Either way, deadening the camp season for the 2020 summer would have a devastating effect on schools' ability to evaluate not only the 2021 class, but 2022 and 2023 as well. (To be sure, a number of FBS schools have already canceled their camps, dead period or no dead period.)
This, potentially, is a way around that for four-year schools, and a huge shot in the arm for coaches at two-year schools.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.