COLLEGE RECRUITING: VIRTUAL REALITY

Despite the inherent drawbacks of video scouting, many college recruiters say lessons learned during the pandemic will continue to be applied when things return to normal

- TEDDY CAHILL

Sitting in his home office this summer, a recruiting coordinator pulled up a live stream feed for a game that featured a player he was recruiting. Just as the player came to bat for the first time, the Internet feed glitched and went out. It came back moments later and the player was standing on second base.

A couple innings later, the player was back up to bat. The feed was working well this time and the camera was positioned to show the at-bat from the player’s open side. Only this time, the on-deck batter stood in front of the camera to warm up, obscuring the view.

“(The batter) ends up on third, so I guess he did something good, but I didn’t see the swing at all,” the recruiting coordinator said. “Stuff like that is frustrating.”

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA’s Division I Council Coordination Committee instituted a recruiting dead period on March 13, the day after the NCAA canceled the College World Series and all other winter and spring sports championships. That dead period—during which in-person contact with recruits and off-campus recruiting is prohibited— was extended multiple times and lasted at least through Sept. 30.