<p>My son was recruited by a number of DIII schools, including Williams, Amherst, Tufts, Emory, NYU, Chicago, and Haverford. He was contacted by the coaches (in some cases after filling out recruiting forms online and in some cases through letters to his high school coach) during the summer after his junior year and on into the fall of senior year. He was invited to visit, but you pay your own way. Williams had a specific weekend for the recruits in his sport and the parents were invited as well. He was contacted a lot by the coaches and the schools were very interested in whether he would apply ED. They were willing to get an early read and help him with admissions, but there was NO GUARANTEE of admission ever given to him. He applied EA to Chicago and was admitted, but he was also admitted to his ED Ivy, where he was also a recruit and was given much more indication of a favorable admission outcome. The DIII schools that care a lot about their sports will give their recruits a pretty good idea of their admission chances- maybe even an early read.</p>
<p>There was a series of articles in the NY times, authored by Bill Pennington, dealing with this topic. His articles focused mainly on Haverford. You might want to dig them up at your local library - I think you have to pay to access the articles online.</p>