On Wednesday, the NCAA announced severely tightened restrictions for recruiting mid-year enrollees in football and basketball.
Previously, prospects could sign financial aid agreements with multiple schools, which then gives schools more freedom to recruit a player that has signed with their school. For example, a recruit could sign a scholarship agreement with Tennessee, Auburn and Ole Miss, and each school could recruit the mid-year enrollee as a signed prospect without knowledge of agreements with other schools.
Moving forward, schools can now recruit players that have signed multiple financial aid agreements - at the risk of violating recruiting rules if they do not ultimately land the player.
Essentially, mid-year enrollees will now be treated equally to recruits signing NLIs in February.
In the NCAA's words:
The change created an unintended scenario in which prospects (most often mid-year enrollees) signed multiple offers of financial aid and coaches were incentivized to recruit prospects to sign so they could recruit without restrictions. The act of signing the agreements then lifted recruiting restrictions for that prospect with more than one school and created what some termed an unhealthy recruiting environment surrounding mid-year enrollees.
The official interpretation said that only the first school to sign a prospect to a financial aid agreement was allowed the unlimited recruiting access, but many schools indicated a concern about inadvertent violations. Schools often aren’t aware when prospects sign financial aid agreements with multiple schools and in what order. The interpretation was rescinded as part of the council’s action.