Colorado Lacrosse Recruiting: Key Dates and Deadlines Every Family Needs to Know
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Colorado Lacrosse Recruiting: Key Dates and Deadlines Every Family Needs to Know
The recruiting process has specific dates that shape when coaches can contact your player, when you can visit campuses, and when scholarship offers can be made. Missing these windows costs you time and opportunities.
This page covers the most important dates by division. Bookmark it and check back each year as NCAA calendars are updated annually. Always verify current dates at ncaa.org before making decisions.
First, understand the four types of recruiting periods
Before the dates make sense, you need to know what each period means.
Contact period. Coaches can have in-person contact with recruits and their families both on and off campus. This is when official phone calls, texts, emails, campus visits, and verbal offers can happen.
Evaluation period. Coaches can watch your player compete or attend practice in person. They cannot have off-campus contact with the recruit or their family during this time.
Quiet period. Coaches can only meet with recruits in person on the college campus. No off-campus contact, no home visits, no attending games.
Dead period. No in-person contact of any kind between coaches and recruits or their families. Digital communication such as email, text, and phone calls is still allowed.
Division I Key Dates
Any time, any grade. Your player can contact D1 coaches at any time. There are no restrictions on when a recruit can reach out. Coaches can respond with non-recruiting materials, camp brochures, and questionnaires at any time. They cannot send recruiting materials or make verbal offers until September 1 of junior year.
September 1 of junior year. This is the most important date in D1 lacrosse recruiting. It is the first day D1 coaches can directly contact your player by phone, text, email, or direct message. It is also the first day coaches can send official recruiting materials, make verbal scholarship offers, and schedule official and unofficial campus visits. If your player is targeting D1 programs, everything before this date is preparation. Everything after this date is active recruiting.
September 1 of junior year onward. Off-campus evaluations begin. Coaches can now watch your player compete at high school and club events. Before this date, coaches can watch but cannot contact.
Transfer portal window for lacrosse. May 10 to June 8, 2026. This is when college athletes can enter the portal and when coaches shift significant attention to transfer recruiting. High school recruits should ideally be committed before this window opens, or understand that coach attention will divide during this period.
D1 dead periods for 2025 to 2026. These are the windows when no in-person contact is permitted. August 1 to 14, 2025. August 28 to September 3, 2025. December 31, 2025 to January 2, 2026. Check ncaa.org for the full current list as additional dead periods apply around specific coaching conventions and championships.
Division II Key Dates
D2 rules are more flexible than D1 across the board, but specific rules still apply around visits and off-campus contact. Families should review the current D2 calendar at ncaa.org before making decisions.
Any time. D2 coaches can call, text, and email recruits at any time. There is no September 1 restriction for D2.
June 15 after sophomore year. This is the key D2 date. Starting June 15 after your player's sophomore year, D2 coaches can have off-campus contact with recruits and their families. Official visits can also be scheduled starting on this date. Verbal offers can be extended.
D2 dead period. November 10 at 7 a.m. to November 12 at 7 a.m. This 48-hour period falls just before the signing of the NCAA financial aid agreement and applies to all D2 sports.
Division III Key Dates
D3 has the most flexible rules of any NCAA division. There are no division-wide restrictions on when coaches can contact recruits. Coaches can call, email, and text at any time. Official and unofficial visits can happen at any time.
This flexibility means D3 programs can build relationships with players as early as freshman year. Families targeting D3 schools should start that outreach earlier than most people expect because the competition for the best D3 programs is real and coaches fill rosters on their own timeline.
NCAA Eligibility Center
Any player who wants to compete at the D1 or D2 level must register with the NCAA Eligibility Center at eligibilitycenter.org. You can register starting your freshman year of high school. Do not wait until junior year.
The Eligibility Center tracks your core course requirements and GPA against NCAA standards. A problem here can end your D1 or D2 eligibility regardless of how good your highlight video is.
Signing periods
Early signing period. Typically falls in November of senior year. This is when players who have been offered a National Letter of Intent can sign and make their commitment official.
Regular signing period. Typically begins in April of senior year and runs through August. Players who did not sign during the early period, or who are still in the process, sign during this window.
Note that verbal commitments made before signing periods are not binding. A coach can extend a verbal offer and a player can verbally commit, but nothing is official until a National Letter of Intent is signed.
A note on timing for Colorado players
Colorado players face more competition for D1 attention than recruits from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, where most major programs recruit heavily. The September 1 contact window for D1 is the same for everyone, but coaches arrive at that date with lists already built.
If your player is serious about a D1 program, they need to be emailing coaches and getting to showcases where those coaches evaluate before junior year. By the time September 1 arrives, your player should already be a known name to the programs they are targeting, not a new introduction.
Check our Colorado commit tracker to see which programs are already recruiting players from your club and high school. Those programs have an existing Colorado pipeline. They are your player's most realistic starting point.
NCAA recruiting rules and calendar dates are updated each year. This post reflects rules and dates current as of May 2026. Always verify the latest information at ncaa.org before making decisions based on specific dates.