The coronavirus has affected every part of society from travel to vacations to eating in restaurants to the stock market and now to the world of recruiting.
On Thursday, Rivals announced the postponement of the Rivals Camp Series events as the company monitors the coronavirus situation. Camps in Dallas, Atlanta, Washington D.C./Virginia, Indianapolis, Nashville, Columbus, New Jersey and Chicago are now on hold.
And on Friday, the NCAA announced a recruiting dead period until at least April 15 because of the virus which means no on-campus recruiting, no off-campus recruiting and coaches cannot go on the road to recruit.
No official visits. No unofficial visits. No junior days.
Like in every part of life, there has already been confusion about what this means. One high-level prospect who plans to visit a major SEC program in the coming weeks is adamant he will still go, even if it’s not possible for coach Nick Saban or anyone else to meet him in Tuscaloosa.
RELATED: NCAA re-institutes dead period due to coronavirus outbreak
LSU was expected to have a massive junior day this weekend but that is no longer possible. Five-star lineman Tommy Brockermeyer and his brother, James, a four-star prospect, were supposed to take an official visit to Alabama the first weekend of April and that will have to be postponed.
High four-star offensive lineman Landon Tengwall had planned an official visit to Notre Dame during that first weekend of April that will have to be moved. He was also looking at a trip to Penn State. Ohio State was supposed to host four-star offensive lineman Jager Burton the following weekend in April and schedules will have to change.
Four-star running back Evan Pryor was planning a trip to Ohio State this weekend which won’t happen now.
Across the country, numerous prospects had extensive visit schedules booked and many will have to be rearranged or canceled. With nervousness about getting on airplanes and now the NCAA mandate to half recruiting, a lot of coaches and teams could be affected.
We ask Rivals National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell if there are any coaches or programs that are particularly negatively affected by the pause in recruiting until April 15 whether it’s new coaching staffs trying to make a big, early impression or whether it’s teams that are off to a slow start in the 2021 class or possibly someone else?
FARRELL'S TAKE
Everyone will be affected in one way or another but the programs that have had a lot of top prospects on campus already, like Florida, North Carolina, Clemson and others will benefit. Who will it hurt? Teams with new coaches like Florida State, Ole Miss and others as those coaches try to establish relationships with 2021 and 2022 prospects. Programs that are hard to visit overall, like Nebraska and Iowa and others, will also be adversely impacted. Those programs are all off to solid starts but any slow down will hurt them as more and more prospects will commit without taking as many visits as before.
