NCAA extends late signing period

Rosters for the 2020-21 college basketball and football seasons will officially begin to take shape as early as mid-April as the NCAA has announced that the national signing period for Division I and II athletes will begin on April 15th and run through August 1st.

The regular signing period for National Letters of Intent (NLI) previously ended April 1st for football and May 20th for basketball. The extension now aligns all sports with the spring year ending on August 1, 2020.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA had previously imposed a recruiting dead period that prohibits in-person contact and campus visits, both official and unofficial, through April 15th. However, that date has now been pushed back to May 31st as college coaches will now have six more weeks of making phone calls, sending text messages and staying in touch with recruits through social media channels.

Despite the dead period for recruiting, the NCAA transfer portal has been wide open as student-athletes are taking to Twitter to announce transfer plans, with many making verbal commitment on Twitter and Instagram. Kentucky freshman Johnny Juzang recently announced on Twitter that he would transfer and has already narrowed his list of schools to Arizona, Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas Tech, UCLA and Villanova.

Last week, the NCAA ruled that seniors unable to participate in spring sports for 2020 would be granted another year of eligibility. There was some discussion about similar action for athletes in winter sports, but that group was denied, officially ending college eligibility for players like Kentucky graduate transfer Nate Sestina, who had hoped to return for the 2020-21 basketball season.

While one issue was resolved, another remains a mystery as the NBA pre-draft process will look much different this year as college coaches are trying to balance roster size and available scholarships while waiting on players to make final decisions.