Introduction

One of the most common questions we hear from recruits and parents is, “When should I expect to commit?” Unfortunately, there isn’t one recruiting timeline that applies to every swimmer or every college.

June 15 after your Sophomore year is an important date because that is when Division I and II coaches can begin communicating with recruits. However, that does not mean every swimmer’s recruiting process will move at the same speed from that point forward. A Power 4 recruit may commit during the Fall of his/her Junior year while another swimmer may commit to a Division III school more than a year later. Both can be completely normal recruiting experiences.

Understanding recruiting timelines is important because it can help you set realistic expectations and better understand what may be happening behind the scenes with the coaches recruiting you. College coaches are trying to build an entire recruiting class, not just recruit one swimmer. Where you fit into that process can have a major impact on the timing of your recruitment.

June 15 is the Starting Line

June 15 gets a lot of attention in recruiting for good reason. Division I and II coaches who have been watching swimmers can begin having direct recruiting conversations with them. For many recruits, this is when college recruiting suddenly starts to feel real.

However, June 15 does not mean every coaching staff immediately turns its full attention to every swimmer in the next recruiting class. A coach may still be trying to finish the class ahead of yours, and completing that class is likely going to take priority. Other coaches may already have a very short list of recruits they want to pursue while some staffs are still evaluating hundreds of swimmers.

This is one reason comparing your recruiting experience to another swimmer’s experience can be misleading. One swimmer may get several calls on June 15 while another swimmer with similar times may have a much slower start and eventually end up with several great options. Every coaching staff has different needs, priorities, and timelines.

When Do Swimmers Typically Commit?

There are always exceptions, but the level of program you are being recruited by can give you a general idea of when commitments may begin.

Power 4: These programs typically move the earliest. Commitments can begin during the Fall of Junior year and continue through the Spring and summer. Power 4 programs are competing against each other for many of the same top recruits, which creates pressure on coaching staffs to identify their top targets and try to lock up their recruiting classes early.

Ivy League/Highly Selective Division I: These schools recruit many of the same caliber swimmers as Power 4 programs, but their timelines can be very different because of the admissions process. Coaches may identify and recruit athletes early, but admissions requirements and academic pre-reads can influence when the coach is comfortable moving forward with a recruit.

Mid-Major Division I: Commitments generally start picking up during the Spring of Junior year and continue heavily through the summer before Senior year and Fall of Senior year. Some programs and recruits will move earlier while others will take considerably longer.

Division II: Commitments typically begin during the summer before Senior year and continue through the Fall and Winter of Senior year. There are Division II programs that recruit earlier, particularly highly competitive programs recruiting swimmers who also have Division I interest.

Division III: Commitments also typically begin during the summer before Senior year and continue through the Fall and Winter. Admissions can play a significant role in the timeline at many Division III schools, particularly academically selective colleges.

These are general guidelines and not deadlines. While some of the highest-ranked recruits will commit during the Fall of their Junior year, a large percentage of college swimming commitments happen between the Spring of Junior year and the Fall of Senior year. If you are a Junior watching swimmers announce commitments on social media and you haven’t committed yet, do not automatically assume you are behind.

Understand the Coach’s Timeline

One of the most useful pieces of information you can get from a coach is where that coaching staff is in its recruiting process.

College coaches frequently recruit more than one class at the same time. A coach may be talking with Juniors while still trying to finish the Senior class ahead of them. If that coach still has multiple roster spots to fill in the older class, those recruits are probably going to receive more immediate attention.

This can explain why communication from a coach sometimes slows down without necessarily meaning the coach has lost interest in you. You need to understand what is happening instead of guessing. Ask the coach where he/she is in the recruiting process, when they expect to focus more heavily on your class, and when they expect to begin making roster spot offers.

Every coaching staff will have a slightly different answer. The only way to understand a specific coach’s timeline is to communicate with that coach.

Scholarship Money Can Affect the Timeline

Scholarship allocation adds another variable to recruiting timelines. Few swimming programs give every swimmer on the team a full athletic scholarship, although there are programs with the resources to provide significant scholarship support throughout the roster. How much money is allocated to individual recruits is generally at the discretion of the coaching staff and the university.

You will rarely find the amount of scholarship money a program has available for a particular class published anywhere. You also will not normally know how much has already been allocated to other recruits. Many coaches consider this information a competitive secret. There is very little benefit to a coaching staff in telling competing programs exactly how much money they have available or how they plan to spend it.

For Power 4 level recruits in particular, the timing of scholarship allocation can matter. If a coach has already allocated most of the scholarship budget available for your class, there may be less money available for recruits who make decisions later. That does not mean you should rush into a commitment you are not ready to make. It does mean you should understand that scholarship money is often a limited pool and coaches may be allocating that money while you are considering your options.

If scholarship money is important to your college decision, talk about it with the coach. Do not assume an offer will look exactly the same several months later.

Offers Usually Have Deadlines

Another common misconception is that once a coach makes you an offer, you can take as much time as you want to decide. That is rarely how college swimming recruiting works.

College coaches are trying to fill a limited number of roster spots. If a coach offers you one of those spots and you do not accept it, the coach needs enough time to move to the next recruit. For that reason, you should expect many roster spot and scholarship offers to come with a deadline.

This is also where recruiting can become frustrating. You may receive a great offer from your second-choice school with two weeks to make a decision while your official visit to your first-choice school is scheduled three weeks away. Unfortunately, the timelines of the colleges recruiting you do not have to conveniently line up with each other.

If this happens, communicate with your first-choice coach immediately. Tell the coach that you have received another offer, give him/her the exact deadline, and ask where you currently stand in their recruiting process. Do not make up an offer or bluff about a deadline in an attempt to pressure a coach. Swimming is a small world and that is a very bad recruiting strategy.

Sometimes the first-choice coach will be able to accelerate the process or give you more information. Other times the coach simply will not be ready to make a decision. You may then have to decide whether to accept the offer you have or take the risk of waiting for another school. There isn’t always going to be a perfect answer.

Different Schools Can Have Very Different Timelines

Some of the most difficult recruiting decisions happen when a swimmer is choosing between colleges that operate on very different recruiting timelines.

A Power 4 school and an Ivy League school may be recruiting almost exactly the same caliber swimmer. That does not mean they will make offers at the same time. The Power 4 coach may be aggressively trying to complete the class while the Ivy League coach is working through academic evaluations, admissions pre-reads, and other parts of the admissions process.

The same thing can happen when comparing Division I, Division II, and Division III schools. One coach may be ready to offer you a roster spot while another school you really like is still months away from making those decisions.

While recruits sometimes think they will be able to dictate their own recruiting timeline, the colleges they are interested in will often dictate much of it. This is simply a result of the competitive nature of college recruiting. Your job is to gather as much information as possible so you can make good decisions when those different timelines collide.

Admissions Can Dictate the Timeline

Not every recruiting timeline is controlled entirely by the swimming coach. At many colleges, admissions plays a major role in determining when a coach can confidently offer support to a recruit.

This is especially noticeable at academically selective schools. You will sometimes see recruits announcing that they are excited to “commit to the admissions process” at an Ivy League or another highly selective university. The wording matters because a coach cannot officially admit a student to the university.

You are officially accepted into a college after you complete the university’s formal application process and receive an acceptance from the admissions office. A coach can recruit you, offer you a roster spot, support your application, and tell you he/she wants you on the team. The admissions office is still ultimately responsible for admitting you to the school.

For this reason, some coaches will be able to give recruits more certainty than others at different points in the process. If you are being recruited by a highly selective school, make sure you understand exactly what the coach is offering and where you are in the admissions process.

Verbal Commitments Are Not Binding, But They Matter

A verbal commitment is exactly what it sounds like. You have told the coach that you are committing to the program, but you have not yet signed the formal university documents that may accompany your roster spot or athletics aid.

That distinction is important, but recruits should not interpret “not binding” to mean that a verbal commitment is casual.

College swimming has its own recruiting culture just like every other college sport. One of the strongest norms in swimming is that the vast majority of college coaches will stop recruiting an athlete once that athlete has verbally committed to another program. Coaches generally respect another coach’s commitment and move on to other recruits.

Swimming is a small world. College coaches know each other, compete against each other, and frequently recruit the same swimmers. If you verbally commit to a college, you should assume that your recruiting process is essentially over. Do not expect other coaches to continue recruiting you, make additional offers, or invite you on official visits. You also should not verbally commit to one school just to hold a roster spot while continuing to shop around for something better.

There are recruits who verbally commit to a college and later decommit. Sometimes the recruit changes his/her mind. Sometimes a coaching change, roster issue, scholarship change, or another unexpected situation forces the decision. It happens, but it should be viewed as the exception rather than a recruiting strategy.

Before you verbally commit, make sure you are ready to stop the recruiting process. While a verbal commitment may not carry the same formal obligations as a signed university agreement, it carries a tremendous amount of weight within the culture of college swimming.

The Transfer Portal Can Change Recruiting Plans

High school swimmers sometimes assume the college transfer portal has nothing to do with their recruitment. That is not necessarily true.

College coaches have to build rosters using both incoming high school recruits and transfers. An unexpected transfer can change a coach’s needs very quickly. A coach may find an experienced swimmer in the portal who fills an immediate event need that the staff previously planned to fill with a high school recruit. The opposite can also happen. A coach may unexpectedly lose swimmers to the portal and suddenly have additional roster or scholarship needs.

For a high school Senior who has already committed and signed, there may not be much you can do about those changes. For a Junior who is still being recruited, transfer activity can cause a coach to change the number of swimmers he/she wants in the next class, which events are priorities, and how scholarship money is allocated.

This is another reason recruiting timelines can change even when the coach had a very clear plan several months earlier.

Five-Year Eligibility Adds Another Variable

College coaches also have to account for changing NCAA eligibility rules when projecting future rosters. The newer age-based eligibility model for Divisions I and II creates a continuous five-year eligibility period for student-athletes, which gives coaching staffs another variable to consider when deciding how large future recruiting classes should be.

Roster construction was already complicated. Coaches have to estimate which current swimmers will remain on the team, who may transfer, how many roster spots will be available, which events they need to recruit, and how much scholarship money will be available. Changes in eligibility rules add another layer to those calculations.

How these changes ultimately affect recruiting class sizes and timelines will continue to play out. Recruits should simply understand that college coaches are trying to predict what their roster will look like several years into the future, and unexpected changes can affect those plans.

Do Not Panic!!

Your recruiting experience is probably going to play out differently than you expect. It is also probably going to look very different than what a swim mom whose kid had five Summer Junior cuts and committed to a Power 4 school in October of Junior year told you would happen.

Do not panic because other swimmers are committing before you. Recruiting timelines vary dramatically depending on the level of swimmer, type of college, scholarship availability, admissions requirements, roster needs, and the individual coaching staff. What matters is understanding the timelines of the colleges that are actually recruiting you.

The most important thing you can do is communicate with those coaches. Ask where you stand in their recruiting process. Ask when they expect to make decisions. Ask whether they are still recruiting your events. Ask what their timeline is for visits and offers. If another coach gives you an offer with a deadline, communicate that information.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make during the recruiting process is being passive. Do your research, communicate with coaches, and keep the lines of communication going. You cannot control every part of the recruiting timeline, but the more information you have about what each coaching staff is doing, the better prepared you will be to make the right decision when it is time to commit.

College Coaches are Researching You. Tell Your Story.

College coaches can use one of several databases, including USA Swimming’s SWIMS database, to see your best times. But you are more than just your times. You want them to see your entire student-athlete resume both in and out of the pool (athletics, academics, leadership, …). Find and claim your SwimIntel profile (free!) then customize it to show college coaches and NIL brand sponsors your true personality (step-by-step guide). Highlight time drops. Tell coaches what makes you unique. Showcase awards. College coaches are researching you. Tell your story so they can see your true potential.