Hi everyone, I had a question about what constitutes a visit as being offical vs unofficial. I recently spoke to a coach who said that they wanted me to come out to see their school, which is a considerable distance from my home. If they were the ones who invited me does that make it an official visit? Or do they have to fill out NCAA paperwork and get that approved to make it official?
It depends on what NCAA Division. If it is D1 or D2 and they ask you, then it would be an OV. D3 does not have OVs and travel to/from plus expenses would be on you
Knowing nothing else I’d suspect this is an unofficial visit. Coaches are usually very clear when they have you coming for an official visit. Official visits usually come near (sometimes after) the end of a long courtship. Also official visits are not allowed until your Sr, year in HS.
There are many threads on this site about ov/unofficial visits. Definitely more involved than a coach inviting you to campus. Most schools will need you to send them transcripts and test scores in order to do a preread with admissions before being able to host you on campus
Generally they will send you an email with all that is needed and ultimately a list of weekends for you to chose from
Best thing is to email the coach let him/her know your interest in an official visit and wait for their response
Best of luck
If they pay the tab - it’s official.
Generally speaking, if you are invited on an official visit, you will know. For one, I believe that the school (at least in D1 and assumedly in D2) is required to get your NCAA clearinghouse number before bringing you out for an official visit, so they will ask for that. As Varska said, generally all transportation, lodging, meals etc is paid by the host institution on an official visit. There are limits on how many official visits you can attend (5), when you can attend them (after first day of classes, senior year) and how many the school can host, so there will be paperwork. An unofficial visit is much less regulated by the NCAA and in my experience varies greatly in the formality and organization from school to school.
I didn’t know the rule about only having official visits available until your senior year. Being a junior, I know now that this isn’t an official visit. However, in anyone’s experience do unofficial visits help as much? I’m interested in attending this school but it’s still early in the recruiting process with them and I would have to fly out there to see the school.
As an old man, I will say that finances are always an issue, so only you and your parents can decide if a flight out is feasible. That said, my son found his unofficial visits to be very helpful in kind of narrowing the field for recruiting purposes. It served as a way to get an introduction to some of the players, and get a basic vibe for the program and the larger campus. I don’t know what your sport is, or how much interest you are seeing from how many schools, but the recruiting process can be overwhelming. There is only so much time, and many athletes need to make decisions about what camps to attend and where to spend their recruiting efforts. To that end, any information you can gather to help you decide where you can see yourself for the next four years is, in my opinion, very valuable.
To which I would only add, the offer of an OV - with the school paying your way out - can serve as sort of a litmus test of the school’s interest in the athlete. The unofficial - with you making the trip on your own - can serve the same purpose for the school to gauge the athlete’s level of interest.