In my D1 college coaching days, the NCAA rules were always difficult to navigate. I always did my best to understand the rules and represent my universities to the best of my abilities. The landscape of the NCAA has changed so much in these past (3) years since I got out of college coaching. It has made things even more complicated, and I don’t envy my college coaching friends who are trying to navigate this new NCAA.

For those of you who don’t follow, there have been several class action lawsuits filed against the NCAA in recent years. All the cases involve back damages and future benefits for Division 1 student-athletes. Settlement documents have been proposed to address three of the cases. You can read more about the settlement and next steps on the NCAA website here.

Settlement aside, every year, there is new NCAA legislation that is proposed and gets approved. Most of these proposals come out of recommendations from conferences or other NCAA committees who see need for a change for one reason or another.
Because of the complexity of the “New” NCAA, I wanted to just focus on the recent changes/potential changes that will/might affect prospective student-athletes so we’re all caught up to speed. *Note: these changes are for D1 only at this time.

Here are a few changes/potential changes to be aware of:

  1. NO MORE RECRUITING QUESTIONNAIRES ALLOWED TO BE SENT PRIOR TO JUNE 15th (AFTER SOPH YEAR)

    Too many coaches were taking advantage of what a recruiting questionnaire actually is.

    • The following can still be sent out prior to June 15th: camp/clinic information, nonathletic institutional info, NCAA educational materials. If you’re receiving any of this info from a specific university, or coaches are reaching out to your club/high school to express interest in you, I would recommend you visit their volleyball website and fill out their questionnaire online, since they likely have some initial interest in you.
  2. NCAA RECRUITING CALENDAR CHANGES
    • College coaches often make changes to the calendar typically to address work-life balance issues or to better serve current student-athletes. You can find the 2024-2025 NCAA D1 Volleyball Recruiting Calendar here.Below are some important changes to note:a. In recent years, D1 college coaches have been in a quiet period until President’s Day weekend. This year the contact period will open up sooner, beginning January 17th. This will allow for players to be seen earlier in the club season than in years past and will be helpful especially to unsigned juniors and seniors still looking to play Division 1

      b. Monday-Thursday from March 3-April 10 will be quiet, meaning college coaches will only be able to recruit on the weekends during this time frame. There will be no Division 1 college coaches watching weekday practices during this time frame which will be a significant change from years past. They will still be able to attend practices outside of this window so I would anticipate coaches to be at practices but likely more in February, late April and early June.

  3. POTENTIAL CHANGE coming to the 2025-2026 season pending approval of the Settlement discussed above:

    a. New roster limit of 18 players max for volleyball

    b. Fully funded programs can carry up to 18

    c. If fully funded there will be no walk-ons

    d. Volleyball will transition from a head count sport to an equivalency sport, which means a set number of scholarships can be divided by a larger number of athletes, if not fully funded.

    e. The roster limits may not happen to every school. Schools will likely need to opt into the settlement agreement for these changes to take effect.

If you’re a Club Recruiting Coordinator, Coach or a Prospective D1 student-athlete, my advice to most of my athletes at the moment is to just proceed with your process as normal. However, I am advising my athletes to make sure they are asking questions to college coaches about the potential roster/scholarship limits. A volleyball athlete needs to understand if a college coach is offering him/her (1) of 12 scholarships or if they are offering out more than 12. If you’re a potential walk-on student athlete in 2025 and beyond, you should have a conversation with the college coaching staff, especially if they tend to carry a large roster size. Hopefully this quick overview of the changes/potential changes are helpful for you to understand the Division 1 landscape at this current moment. Best of luck to everyone with the start of the high school season!