This week, the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision Oversight Committees adopted legislation to increase the number of official recruiting visits a school can host from 56 to 70 each academic year.
Meeting virtually on Wednesday, FBS committee members also adopted legislation to specify that during an unofficial visit, schools may not arrange for photographs or photograph a prospective student-athlete or those accompanying the prospective student-athlete.
Before becoming final, the Division I Council has an opportunity to review these proposals during its in-person meeting at the NCAA Convention in January. The council has the authority to allow the proposals to remain as adopted, amend them or defeat them.
Committee members voted to increase official school recruiting visits to promote responsible recruiting practices. Additionally, recent legislative changes to the one-time transfer exception, notification-of-transfer windows and the annual signing and initial counter limits legislation required an increase in the annual number of official visits a school may provide.
To promote responsible recruiting practices, this legislation also eliminates exceptions that provided a school additional visits if the institution doesn't use all its visits during the previous year or in certain circumstances when there is a head coaching change.
The FBSOC has discussed issues surrounding photo and video shoots that occur during unofficial visits several times this year.
The committee members believe this legislation will eliminate the distraction of photo and video shoots during unofficial visits and reduce the time staff and prospective student-athletes spend on such activities. The rule change will give schools and prospective student-athletes more opportunities to focus on activities that assist the prospective student-athlete in making an informed recruiting decision, such as meeting with coaches and academic officials.
