MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The COVID-19 virus pandemic has wide-reaching ramifications in all aspects of sports.
From the suspension of professional leagues to the entire cancellation of the NCAA winter and spring tournaments, as well as the Big 12 spring seasons, the impact can be felt at all levels in the sporting world. Although, obviously, there are bigger concerns at play.
That also includes recruiting as the WVU football team is not permitted to hold any in-person or off-campus visits indefinitely, effectively putting the program into another dead period. A dead period prohibits any campus visits or trips by coaches to see prospects, although phone calls are allowed in order to keep open lines of communication.
The Mountaineers just exited an NCAA mandated dead period that spanned almost the entire month of February and now will be entering another after only one major visit weekend in March.
So what does it mean for recruiting?
Because the entire college football landscape is dealing with the same there isn’t necessarily a competitive advantage, but what it does shift the calendar. It remains to be seen what changes, if any, will be made by the NCAA to make up for this lost time period to host prospects but that won’t be determined until further down the road.
Could you see dates and periods moved such as the early signing event? Those questions won’t be answered until later, but for now, let’s look at the short term.
Because of the pandemic, the Mountaineers will not be able to showcase the spring practice environment to potential visitors, which obviously is a downside. Depending on how long this goes, it also could cut into the spring evaluation period where coaches hit the road and make critical decisions on which prospects they want to further pursue after seeing them perform.
The good news is WVU has been very proactive with this recruiting cycle and has hosted many of its top targets multiple times already, giving them a real comfort level with the program. That could be significant the further this process goes as time to visit schools will shrink prior to the start of senior seasons.
WVU has already hosted well over 40-plus prospects multiple times at this stage of the process, a bulk of which made more than one trip for the six junior days from December until the recent March 7 date.
Recruiting is going to be slowed by COVID-19, but it certainly won’t be stopped.
