The NCAA's 2025-26 Division I FBS football recruiting calendar moves through three distinct periods over the next nine weeks. Each one shapes what college coaches and families are allowed to do, and each one carries different planning implications. For families pricing out camps, visits, and travel through July, the distinctions are the difference between a productive summer and wasted motion.
What the calendar actually says
According to the official NCAA Division I FBS football recruiting calendar, the current dead period runs May 24 through 27. Beginning Thursday, May 28, the calendar opens to a quiet period that runs through June 22. From June 23 through July 31, FBS football returns to a dead period for the remainder of the summer.
These distinctions are not interchangeable, and that is the part most families do not see clearly until they are mid-decision on a camp or visit.
What a quiet period allows
During the May 28 to June 22 quiet period, in-person recruiting contact is permitted only on a college's campus. Coaches cannot evaluate a prospect at his high school, club workout, or off-campus combine. On-campus camps, official visits, and unofficial visits remain open.
For most families, that makes this four-week window the operative stretch for summer camp evaluations, junior days, and structured campus visits. It is when on-campus exposure is possible at all before the calendar closes again.
What a dead period closes
From June 23 through July 31, FBS programs may not have any in-person contact with prospects. No campus visits. No off-campus evaluations. No on-campus camps that involve coaching staff in a recruiting capacity. Phone calls, emails, and texts are still permitted, but the in-person element shuts down for five weeks.
The same restrictions apply to the four days currently on the calendar, May 24 through 27, where the sport sits as of today.
What this means for a family right now
The planning implication is straightforward. If a campus visit or on-campus camp matters to your athlete's evaluation timeline, it should land inside the May 28 to June 22 window or wait until the calendar reopens in the fall. Pushing for an in-person event during a dead period is not a matter of effort. It is not allowed.
The quieter weeks in late June and July are not lost time. They are well-suited to film review, written follow-up with programs that have already shown interest, and preparation for the fall contact period. The goal is to match the work to the window, not to force motion into a calendar that does not permit it.