Contact - A contact is any face-to-face encounter between a prospect or the prospect’s parents, relatives or legal guardian(s) and an institutional staff member or athletics representative during which any dialogue occurs in excess of an exchange of a greeting. Any such face-to-face encounter that is prearranged (e.g., positions himself/herself in a location where contact is possible) or that takes place on the grounds of the prospect’s educational institution or at the site of organized competition or practice involving the prospect or the prospect’s high school, preparatory school, two-year college or all-star team shall be considered a contact, regardless of whether any conversation occurs. However, an institutional staff member or athletics representative who is approached by a prospect or the prospect’s parents, relatives or legal guardian(s) at any location shall not use a contact, provided the encounter was not prearranged and the staff member or athletics representative does not engage in any dialogue in excess of a greeting and takes appropriate steps to immediately terminate the encounter.
Contact period - permissible for authorized athletic department staff members to make in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts and evaluations.
Dead period - not permissible to make in-person recruiting contacts or evaluations on- or off-campus or permit official or unofficial visits.
Evaluation - Evaluation is any off-campus activity designed to assess the academic qualifications or athletics ability of a prospect, including any visit to a prospect’s educational institution (during which no contact occurs) or the observation of a prospect participating in any practice or competition at any site.
Evaluation Days - An evaluation day is defined as one coach engaged in the evaluation of any prospect on one day (12:01 a.m. to midnight); two coaches making evaluations on the same day shall use two evaluation days.
Evaluation period - permissible for authorized athletics department staff to be involved in off-campus activities to assess academic qualifications and playing abilities. No in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts with a prospective student-athlete are permitted.
Quiet period - permissible to make in-person recruiting contacts only on the member institution's campus.
The National Letter of Intent The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is a binding agreement between a prospective student-athlete and an institution in which the institution agrees to provide a prospective student-athlete who is admitted to the institution and is eligible for financial aid under NCAA rules athletics aid for one academic year in exchange for the prospective student-athlete's agreement to attend the institution for one academic year. Additional information can be obtained through the NLI program Web page at www.national-letter.org. Please contact the NCAA membership services staff at 317/917-6222 if you have further questions.
