Girls' Youth Soccer

College Soccer Recruiting for Girls: A Simple Timeline

By Marcos Salles Updated Oct 29, 2026 11 min read

Quick answer

College soccer recruiting for girls follows a calendar set by the NCAA. In Division I, coaches cannot call, text or email a recruit until June 15 after her sophomore year. Off-campus visits and official campus visits open on August 1 of junior year, and written scholarship offers on August 1 of senior year. Division II uses the same June 15 date. These dates come from the 2026-27 rule book.

A college women's soccer player in a white jersey and pink headband controls the ball while a defender in black number 22 closes her down on a gold and green field — Baldwin Wallace women's soccer, September 18, 2021. Photo: Erik Drost, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).

On this page

When does college soccer recruiting start for girls?
What can a family do before coaches can call?
What changes on June 15 after sophomore year?
How often can a college coach see her play?
When can she visit a college campus?
When can a school make a written offer, and when does she sign?
How many scholarships does a women's soccer team have now?
What should a family do each year?
What does this guide leave out?
FAQ
Sources

I have never run a recruiting process, so everything here comes from the NCAA's own rule book, which I read on October 29, 2026. I am not selling a recruiting service or a showcase. The goal is a calendar a parent can keep on the fridge: what coaches may do, when they may do it, and what a family can do while it is still quiet.

One warning first: these are the rules for the 2026-27 school year, and the NCAA changes them. Several of the rules below were revised this year, so check the date on the NCAA's current calendar before you plan around a day. This site is independent and not affiliated with the NCAA, the NAIA, U.S. Soccer or any club. If you are new to the youth side of the sport, start with my parent's guide to girls' club soccer in the U.S..

When does college soccer recruiting start for girls?

For a girl who plays at the Division I level, the first real date is June 15 after her sophomore year. Before it, a coach cannot start the conversation. After it, the calendar opens in steps. The graphic below puts the Division I milestones in order.

Timeline of six steps. 1, any age: register with the NCAA Eligibility Center. 2, before June 15 of sophomore year: Division I coaches cannot call, text or email you. 3, June 15 after sophomore year: calls, texts and emails can start. 4, August 1 at the start of junior year: coaches can meet you off campus and Division I official visits begin. 5, August 1 at the start of senior year: written scholarship offers are allowed. 6, first signing date: November 11, 2026 for this year's seniors. — Graphic made by WoSo Arena from the NCAA Division I Manual 2026-27, read October 29, 2026. Division II dates differ in places, as explained below.

To make it concrete, here is the same calendar for a girl who starts ninth grade this fall, the class of 2030. The dates assume the rules stay as they are, which is the part I cannot promise.

When	What opens
2026-27 and 2027-28 (9th and 10th grade)	No calls, texts or recruiting emails from coaches. A family can register with the NCAA Eligibility Center.
June 15, 2028	Calls, texts, emails and recruiting materials can start.
August 1, 2028 (start of junior year)	Coaches can meet her off campus. Official, expense-paid visits can begin.
August 1, 2029 (start of senior year)	A school can put a scholarship offer in writing.
First signing date, fall 2029	The date is set each year. For this year's seniors it is November 11, 2026.

Division I calendar for a girl in ninth grade in 2026-27 (class of 2030). Source: NCAA Division I Manual 2026-27, read Oct. 29, 2026. The signing date is announced year by year.

My read: because coaches cannot start the conversation before June 15 of sophomore year, the first two years of high school are about what a family controls: grades, the right courses and a registered NCAA account. The next sections follow the calendar in order.

What can a family do before coaches can call?

Quite a lot, and none of it needs a coach. The NCAA says students may register with the Eligibility Center at any age, and that students who register as early as sixth grade should consider a profile page, while those registering in eighth grade should consider a certification account. A profile page is for exploring options. The certification account is the one a girl needs if she plans to compete at a Division I or Division II school.

The academic side is published, so you can plan for it:

Division I: 16 core courses and a minimum 2.3 core-course GPA. Ten of the core courses, seven of them in English, math or science, must be finished before the start of the seventh semester, which is senior year.
Division II: 16 core courses and a minimum 2.2 core-course GPA.

I did not find a fee on the NCAA pages I read, so ask the Eligibility Center for the current amount. Coaches cannot call, text or send recruiting messages before June 15. A Division I staff member also may not take a call from the recruit before that date, so a family that wants to reach a coach by phone has to wait too.

What changes on June 15 after sophomore year?

Contact opens. Division I rules say calls to a recruit or her family may not be made before June 15 at the end of her sophomore year, and after that a school may call at its own discretion. The same date applies to recruiting materials and electronic messages. Division II is almost identical: its rule says contact cannot start before June 15 immediately before junior year, which is the same day.

The NCAA's recruiting page puts it simply: coaches initiate most recruiting conversations. That is why the date matters. From June 15 on, a girl who has been playing at the right events can start to hear from programs, and the answer to "who is interested?" starts to take shape.

A coach can also watch her on video. Under the Division I rule book, watching a recruiting or scouting service's video of a player counts as an evaluation, so it falls under the same evaluation rules as watching her in person.

How often can a college coach see her play?

There is a cap. During the academic year, a Division I program may use seven recruiting opportunities per recruit, evaluations and contacts combined, and no more than three of the seven can be contacts. A contact is a face-to-face conversation that goes beyond a hello. An evaluation is watching her play or practice.

In practice, this is why programs like events where many teams play on the same weekend. ECNL lists events with scout registration and Girls Academy runs showcases too, and I explain both in my guide to ECNL vs. Girls Academy. My read: a showcase is a way to be seen, not a requirement, and no official page I read says a girl must play in one to be recruited.

When can she visit a college campus?

There are two kinds of visit, and the difference is who pays.

Unofficial visit: the family pays its own way. If the school or its boosters provide more than $100 in expenses or entertainment, the visit becomes an official visit.
Official visit: the school pays for part of the trip. In Division I soccer, an expense-paid visit cannot happen before August 1 of junior year. In Division II it is June 15 before junior year. In Division I, the girl must give the school her transcript, be registered with the NCAA Eligibility Center, and be on the school's request list. The school can provide up to two consecutive nights of lodging, and it can finance one visit to its campus before October 15 after she finishes high school.

Visits cannot happen at any time. The NCAA sets dead periods, when in-person recruiting contact and both kinds of visits are off limits. For women's soccer in 2026-27, the NCAA's calendar lists these:

Dates	What it is
August 1 to 11, 2026	Dead period
November 9 to 12, 2026	Dead period: the Monday through Thursday of the first week of the fall signing date
December 16, 2026 to January 6, 2027	Dead period
July 28 to 31, 2027	Dead period

Dead periods for Division I women's soccer, 2026-27. Source: NCAA 2026-27 Recruiting Calendar, "Other Division I Sports," updated Aug. 4, 2026. Calendars can be revised during the year.

A college women's soccer player in a white jersey number 16 and a light blue headband shields the ball from a defender on a grass field — A college women's match at the 2014 Captains Classic. Programs see most recruits at events like this before they make an offer. Photo: c w, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).

When can a school make a written offer, and when does she sign?

Not before August 1 of her senior year. The Division I rule says that before that date a school cannot give a written offer of athletics aid or indicate in writing that aid will be offered. From August 1 on, it can say in writing that an offer is coming, but she cannot sign until the signing date.

For this year's seniors, the NCAA Division I Manual lists November 11, 2026 as the first signing date for all sports other than basketball and football. That is why the women's soccer dead period runs from November 9 to 12. After that, the final date depends on each school's own policy for awarding aid. The Manual lists dates for 2026 only, so a family of a younger player should look up the date for her year.

How many scholarships does a women's soccer team have now?

This part changed in 2025. Under the House settlement, Division I schools that opt in follow a roster limit instead of the old caps on scholarships. In the NCAA's Division I Manual, the roster limit for women's soccer is 28. The College Sports Commission's chart shows the old scholarship limit was 14 and lists the new roster limit as 28.

The settlement does not say a team must use those 28 spots or give all of them aid. How many offers a given program makes is each school's decision, and it will vary. Schools that do not opt in can set their own roster sizes, but the NCAA's guide says that a school giving more aid than the 2024-25 limits is subject to the settlement and its roster limits. A federal judge raised concerns about the roster cuts in April 2025, and the NCAA's implementation guide, updated May 29, 2026, treats the limits as in effect.

My read: because the number of spots and the amount of aid are up to each program, the useful question to ask a coach is not "do you have scholarships" but "how many players do you plan to recruit in my daughter's class, and how is aid split?"

Level	Athletic scholarships	What I could confirm
NCAA Division I	Yes	Roster limit of 28 at schools in the settlement; the old limit was 14 scholarships.
NCAA Division II	Yes	An equivalency limit of 9.9 per team, which schools can split among players.
NCAA Division III	No	The NCAA says Division III schools do not offer athletics scholarships, but academic aid and grants are available.
NAIA	Yes	The NAIA lists 250 schools and $1.3 billion in scholarships across all sports. Players must register with the NAIA Eligibility Center.

What each college level offers for women's soccer. Sources: NCAA Division I and II Manuals 2026-27, College Sports Commission, NCAA scholarships page, NAIA, read Oct. 29, 2026.

What should a family do each year?

This is the part that is my opinion, built on the dates above.

Ninth and tenth grade: keep the core courses on track, create the NCAA account, and play where she is challenged. No coach can call yet.
Summer after sophomore year: June 15 is the first day coaches can reach out. Have a list of schools ready that includes more than one division, because the answer to "who wants her" is usually a mix.
Junior year: schools can meet her off campus and host official visits from August 1. Plan visits around the dead periods in the table above.
Senior year: written offers start August 1. Read each offer's terms before you sign anything.

The cost of the club path is the other half of this story. My budget guide adds up the published fees, and one club's ECNL Regional League fee in that guide includes a college recruitment package. For help matching your daughter's birth year to the right age group, see my age-group guide.

What does this guide leave out?

Three things, so you do not look for them here. I could not open the NJCAA site, so I say nothing about junior college rules. I did not read the Division III or NAIA rules on when coaches may contact a recruit, so the dates in this guide are Division I, with Division II where I read it. And I did not find a percentage of high school players who go on to play in college in the NCAA pages I could read, so I will not guess one.

This guide is part of the Girls' Youth Soccer section. If the 2027 Women's World Cup is what started your daughter's interest in the game, my tournament schedule is the place to begin. I will update this page when the NCAA publishes its next calendar.

Frequently asked questions

When can college coaches contact a girl in soccer recruiting?

In Division I, coaches cannot call, text or send recruiting emails and materials until June 15 after the recruit's sophomore year. Division II uses the same date, June 15 before junior year. Before then, coaches may watch players at permitted events but cannot start the conversation.

Can a girl call a college coach before her sophomore year ends?

In Division I, a staff member may not take a call from a recruit before June 15 at the end of her sophomore year. I did not find a separate rule about emails a family sends, so ask the school's compliance office if you are unsure.

When can a girl take an official visit?

In Division I soccer, an expense-paid visit cannot happen before August 1 of junior year. In Division II it is June 15 before junior year. For Division I she must have her transcript, be registered with the NCAA Eligibility Center and be on the school's request list. Unofficial visits, at the family's own expense, are different.

When can a college make a written scholarship offer in soccer?

Not before August 1 of the recruit's senior year in Division I. For this year's seniors, the first signing date is November 11, 2026 for all sports other than basketball and football. The date for later classes is set year by year.

How many players can a Division I women's soccer team have?

The roster limit is 28 for schools in the House settlement. The old scholarship limit was 14. How many spots a team fills, and how much aid goes with them, is up to each school.

Do Division III schools give athletic scholarships?

No. The NCAA says Division III schools do not offer athletics scholarships, though players can get academic scholarships, grants and other financial aid.

What does a girl need to register with the NCAA Eligibility Center?

Students may register at any age. For Division I she needs 16 core courses and a 2.3 core-course GPA, and for Division II 16 core courses and a 2.2 GPA. The NCAA lists a profile page for exploring and a certification account for Division I and II.

Sources

Marcos Salles

Founder and editor, WoSo Arena

I live in Salvador, Brazil, one of the eight host cities of the 2027 Women's World Cup, and I spent five years in the United States, where girls' and women's games filled the parks and school fields of Los Angeles. Every article starts from official sources, listed at the end.

How I write