NCAA Recruiting Rules for Softball

The National Collegiate Athletic Association closely monitors the recruiting of athletes to ensure fairness between its member schools. NCAA rules are in place that govern the contact between softball coaches and potential recruits and create other limitations on scholarships. The NCAA, as of 2010, consists of about 300 colleges, split between three different divisions, all of which have different recruiting rules.

  1. Recruiting Visits

    • Coaches are not allowed to make phone calls or send out recruiting information to high school athletes until Sept. 1 of their junior year. Players are able to call coaches or visit them on campus, as long as the player initiates contact and pays for the visit, but the school's contact is limited to inviting players to sports camps and similar events. Coaches can watch softball players in action, but are banned from talking to players at tournaments they might be attending prior to the junior year. Beginning in the junior year, coaches can start making contact with players by email and by sending literature. After July 1, following the athlete's junior season, direct contact by phone or in person is allowed, but the coach is limited to initiating one phone call per week. That continues into the senior year of high school, during which a player can make five official visits to campuses that are paid for by the school.

    Division I Schools

    • NCAA Division I softball is a scholarship equivalency sport. Unlike headcount sports in which each scholarship must be awarded in full to one athlete, equivalency sports allow schools to split the allocated scholarship dollars among as many players as it chooses to, giving partial scholarships instead of full-ride grants. Women's Division I softball teams can award the equivalent dollars that add up to 12 total scholarships. Most schools will recruit as many as 20 players to share those available dollars.

    Divisions II and III

    • Softball is also an equivalency sport in NCAA Division II, but the number of available scholarships is limited to the financial equivalent of 7.2 full grants. Division II schools are able to supplement the athletic dollars for qualified students with academic scholarships. Division III schools do not have any athletic scholarships, but the rules are structured to allow those coaches to recruit players and work with them on academic and other awards that will provide them an opportunity to play softball and get some help with the costs of education.