Ole Miss Impact: NCAA Extends Recruiting Dead Period Yet Again

The NCAA Division I Council announced on Wednesday night yet another extension to the recruiting dead period, this time through July 31. So what does this all mean?

The NCAA Division I Council announced on Wednesday night yet another extension to the recruiting dead period, this time through July 31. The decision is made for all sports. 

It's the string in a line of decisions on the dead period by the NCAA. Just two weeks ago, they had extended the recruiting dead period through June 30. 

“The extension maintains consistent recruiting rules for all sports and allows coaches to focus on the student-athletes who may be returning to campus,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Pennsylvania. “The committee is committed to reviewing the dead period again in late June or early July.”

In a standard calendar year, college football has a dead period in effect from June 22 to July 24 anyways. Now, no official visits will be allowed until at the very least the end of the July. 

So what does this all mean? 

Pretty simply, it means we're going to have to wait until the 2022 Ole Miss recruiting class to see what Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss staff can do on the recruiting trail in normal situations. 

Yes, everyone is at a disadvantage here, but it seems like it would hurt first-year programs more as many of these recruits have yet to meet the new staffs in person. 

Additionally, the longer the dead periods extend, the more difficult it will be for any recruit trying to make their college decision by the early recruiting window in December. It may prove reasonable to push back the entire recruiting calendar altogether. 

Time will tell on those such decisions, but for now Ole Miss will not be able to officially host players on campus until August at the earliest. 

For more on the NCAA decision as a whole, see the above video with Pat Forde. 

You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the top righthand corner of the page. Also, be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @SIRebels and @nategabler.