You become a "prospective student-athlete" when you start ninth-grade classes. Before the ninth grade, you become a prospective student-athlete if a college gives you (or your relatives or friends) any financial aid or other benefits that the college does not provide to prospective students generally.

You become a "recruited prospective student-athlete" at a particular college if any coach or representative of the college's athletics interests (booster or representative) approaches you (or any member of your family) about enrolling and participating in athletics at that college. Activities by coaches or boosters that cause you to become a recruited prospective student-athlete are:

Providing you with an official visit;
Placing more than one telephone call to you or any other member of your family; or
Visiting you or any other member of your family anywhere other than the college campus. In addition, no alumni or representatives of a college's athletics interests (boosters or representatives) can be involved in off-campus recruiting; however, you may receive letters from boosters, faculty members, students and coaches on or after September 1 of your junior year. In all sports other than football and basketball, telephone calls from coaches, boosters and faculty members are permissible on or after July 1 after completion of your junior year. In Division II football, coaches are permitted to make one telephone call to you [or your relatives or legal guardian(s)] during the month of May of your junior year in high school. Additional telephone calls may be made starting September 1 of your senior year in high school.

After this, in sports other than football, a college coach or faculty member is limited to one telephone call per week to you (or your parents or legal guardians), except that unlimited calls to you (or your parents or legal guardians) may be made under the following circumstances:

During the five days immediately before your official visit (by the college you'll be visiting);
On the day of the coach's off-campus contact with you; and
On the initial date for signing the National Letter of Intent in your sport through the two days after the initial signing date.

In Division II football, unlimited phone calls to you can be made during a contact period and once a week outside of a contact period.

Coaches may accept collect calls and use a toll-free (1-800) number to receive telephone calls from you (or your parents or legal guardians) at any time.

Enrolled students (including student-athletes) may not make recruiting telephone calls to you unless the calls are made as a part of an institution's regular admissions program directed at all prospective students. Enrolled students (including student-athletes) may receive telephone calls at your expense on or after July 1 after completion of your junior year.

You (or your family) may not receive any benefit, inducement or arrangement such as cash, clothing, cars, improper expenses, transportation, gifts or loans to encourage you to sign an institutional or conference letter of intent or to attend an NCAA school.

A college coach may contact you in person off the college campus but only on or after July 1 after completion of your junior year.

Any face-to-face meeting between a coach and you or your parents, during which any of you say more than "hello" is a contact. Furthermore, any face-to-face meeting that is prearranged, or occurs at your high school or at any competition or practice site is a contact, regardless of the conversation. These contacts are not permissible "bumps."

In all sports, coaches may contact you off the college campus three times. However, a coach may visit your high school (with your high-school principal's approval) only once a week during a contact period.

An evaluation is any off-campus activity used to assess your academic qualifications or athletics ability, including a visit to your high school (during which no contact occurs) or watching you practice or compete at any site.

In all sports, coaches may not evaluate you more than four times during the academic year. Competition on consecutive days within a tournament (and normally at the same site) or that involves a tier of a tournament (e.g., regional) counts as a single evaluation. Once you sign a National Letter of Intent, you may be evaluated an unlimited number of times by a college coach from the college with which you have signed.

There is a "dead" period (coaches may not contact or evaluate you on or off the college campus) in all sports 48 hours before 7 a.m. on the initial signing date for the National Letter of Intent.

With the permission of your high school's director of athletics, you may tryout for a college team before enrollment. The tryout must occur in a term other than the term in which the traditional season in the sport occurs or after your high-school eligibility is completed and may include tests to evaluate your strength, speed, agility and sports skills. Except in football, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer and wrestling, the tryout may include competition.

You can visit a college campus any time at your expense. On such a visit, you may receive three complimentary admissions to a game on that campus, a tour of off-campus practice and competition sites in your sport and other facilities within 30 miles of the campus, and a meal for you and your parents or guardians in the college's on-campus student dining facilities.

During your senior year, you can have one expense-paid (official) visit to a particular campus. You may receive no more than a total of five such visits. This restriction applies even if you are being recruited in more than one sport. A college may not give you an official visit unless you have provided it with a PSAT, ACT or SAT score from a test taken on a national testing date under national testing conditions.

During your official visit (which may not exceed 48 hours), you may receive round-trip transportation between your home (or high school) and the campus, and you (and your parents) may receive meals, lodging and complimentary admissions to campus athletics events. In addition, a student host may help you (and your family) become acquainted with campus life. The host may spend $30 per day to cover costs of entertaining you (and your parents, legal guardians or spouse); however, the money cannot be used to purchase college souvenirs such as T-shirts or other college mementos.

A Division II college recruiting you may provide to you only the following printed materials on or after September 1 at the beginning of your junior year:

Official academic, admissions and student-services publications or videotapes published by the college; General correspondence, including letters and college note cards; Newspaper clippings, provided they are not assembled in any form of a scrapbook; A media guide or recruiting brochure (but not both) in each sport; game programs (a college may only give you a program on an official or unofficial visit; colleges may not mail you a program); Any pre-enrollment information about orientation, conditioning, academics, and (or) practice activities, as long as you have signed a National Letter of Intent or have been accepted for enrollment by a member college; One student-athlete handbook. (A college may only give you a handbook on an official or unofficial visit. A college may not mail it to you.); and One wallet-size playing schedule card in each sport. In addition, a Division II college may show you a highlight film/videotape, but may not send it to you or leave it with you or your coach.

Finally, a Division II college also may provide you with a questionnaire, camp brochure and educational information published by the NCAA (such as this guide) at any time.