Whenever I read the NCAA rules about contact, I get dizzy and can’t figure them out. Does anyone have a good link for this?
My specific question: if my Junior child attends a game to watch the team she likes , but it is on the other school’s campus, can the coach talk to her?
My other question is-do you tell the coach you are going to the game beforehand? Should you expect to be spoken to? What is the etiquette?
And even tricker-you like school A and school B. They are playing each other . Do you attend and try to talk to both coaches? better yet, where do you sit?
Ah, the weighty matters we have to deal with…Thanks 
We have watched matches between two schools my daughter is considering. We were more familiar with one program initially, so would root for them…we now sort of don’t root for either team (at least externally) if they face each other.
We have told coaches we were going to watch certain matches.
In terms of talking to the coaches at event, we have, but really only exchanged pleasantries (she’s a Junior). They’re pretty busy on game day and I’ve always felt like even that was an imposition on their time…
My understanding is that coaches can, prior to the July 1st date, speak to athletes if the athlete has made the initial contact (via email, phone message etc) After July 1st a coach may make contact with an athlete they are interested in…
This would seem to me to be an off-campus contact, and the D3 rule is that off-campus contact is allowed after the end of Junior year. D1 is tougher, and has a series of “dead periods” and “quiet periods.” You should take a look at the NCAA recruiting calendar for D1 and D2 specifics.
Of course, you can always tell a coach that you are going to a game and let the coach say if she can or can’t talk. Coaches can always say “hello” in an off-campus contact, but not much more than that.
We had the same experience as SevenDad about coaches being busy during game day. Coaches not only are involved in warming up prior to the game and coaching during the game, if they are traveling they also need to coordinate that, overnights, meals and any possible injuries/training issues. If it is the home coach, however, you wouldn’t need to worry about the prohibition on off campus contact, because I think it would be considered an unofficial visit.
Good luck with the seating arrangements. Move around a lot?
I was assuming Div I.
To clarify for Div III, off-campus contact is allowed after completion of sophomore year in high school (this is different than Div I):
13.1.1.1 High School Prospective Student-Athletes. In-person, off-campus recruiting contacts shall not be made with a prospective student-athlete or the prospective student-athlete’s relatives or guardian(s) until the prospective student-athlete has completed his or her sophomore year in high school. U.S. service academy exceptions to this provision are set forth in Bylaw 13.16.1. (Revised: 1/10/91 e ective 7/1/91, 1/11/94 e ective 3/15/94, 1/10/95, 1/14/97, 8/3/06, 1/19/12, 1/17/15 for prospective student-athletes who complete their sophomore year in high school during the 2014-15 academic year or later)
Right you are @SevenDad. As best I can tell, the rule for D3 was changed in 2015, but changed it is. Good catch.
Here is a link to the NCAA recruiting calendars. Take a look, but I think this is a pretty straight forward layout.
As to your specific question, “off campus contact” refers to any contact that occurs off of the recruiting school’s campus, so under your scenario, those rules would apply to the visiting but not the home team. I wouldn’t sweat the where to sit part. Hopefully, the coaches have better things to do than scan the crowd for recruits. I would tell the coach you will be attending, but would not count on talking with either coach.
http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/resources/recruiting-calendars
D1 coaches can’t talk to recruits off campus until summer after junior year. They can say hello or wave but that is about it. One out of state coach texted me son when he was junior to say the team was playing in our state at a campus 90 min from home. He asked son to attend and watch which he did, but there was no contact outside a greeting. Depending on the sport, if there is a meet or competition where multiple teams attend, a coach could ask players to talk to a recruit; at one weekend event early in son’s jr year, team captain met my son and then introduced him to other players-that was OK since coach was not directly involved. Even after the off campus deadline is met (can’t remember if it was 6/1 or 7/1 after jr year, coaches still cant talk to recruit they are watching at the recruit’s competition until the player is out of the competition. Coaches can meet with players before competition starts. In my son’s sport, the sign in for a national event was on a Friday or Saturday afternoon in the summer, and coaches would meet with recruits that am before sign in. I think coaches could still Email or text during the competition but no face to face contact until competition is over. Coaches could text and tell players to text back when they were out so coach could have a meeting before recruit went home. It is great when the off campus visits are allowed; coaches can meet players where they train, go to lunch with them though recruit has to pay for own mail except on OV, etc.Different sports have different deadlines. The Power schools coachs are careful to follow the rules. Some of the mid major school coaches are more talkative than they are supposed to be. They are not supposed to talk to family members either during events but some do, e.g. strking up a conversation with a spectator, finding out that person is related to recruit of interest, and coach keeps talking-may be that is a gray area.