According to College Hockey Inc., the NCAA Board of Directors last weekend approved legislation that will allow college hockey coaches to contact prospective players beginning Jan. 1 of their 10th grade year, five and a half months earlier than the previous rule.
This new measure is effective immediately and is aimed to allow NCAA coaches to contact players prior to being drafted in the Canadian Hockey League.
“This should help more and more talented young players understand their options prior to making a decision that could jeopardize their NCAA eligibility,” the report read.
The new legislation also removes limits on the number of telephone calls, emails, social media direct messages and text messages that coaches can send to those players, also beginning Jan. 1 of their 10th grade year.
Previously, coaches could not contact prospective student-athletes or their families until June 15 of a prospect’s 10th grade year and even then, coaches were limited in the number of calls or emails they could make to an individual.
“As a result, many prospective players never knew that NCAA schools had interest in recruiting them – and those who were proactive and contacted schools on their own would not hear back until at least June 15 of their grade 10 year,” continued the report.
Coaches still have limits in the number of in-person contacts they can make with prospective players and they still cannot make their first off-campus contact with a prospect until June 15 of their 10th grade year
