MADISON, Wis. – After a year scrambling to adjust to unprecedented recruiting challenges, the University of Wisconsin can once again flaunt its campus to recruits in person.

After going more than a year with no face-to-face recruiting, the NCAA is lifting its extended dead period to allow coaches to return to normal recruiting calendars on June 1.

The dead period was implemented in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It has been extended eight times since, most recently in February, and currently runs through May 31. Players have been unable to take official or unofficial visits for the past 13 months, and instead of normal campus visits and in-person interactions with coaches, have been forced to learn about schools through virtual visits and Zoom meetings.

Wisconsin was fortunate to get a bulk of its 2021 class either verbally committed or hosted on campus before the shutdown but still had to go mostly virtually to complete a class that had 21 scholarship players and was ranked 15th in the country by Rivals.com (the highest for Wisconsin in the internet ranking era).

“We are obviously really excited about getting guys back on campus,” head coach Paul Chryst said Friday as Wisconsin wrapped up its slate of spring practices. “We had a (recruiting) class starting in June and it’s been a long time since they’ve been on campus. We have a couple who haven’t been inside our facility. Having them be able to come is big.”

Chryst and the staff are wasting little time in filling out the calendar with visitors. In June, the Badgers are slated to host at least 15 uncommitted prospects for official visits for the 2022 recruiting class. UW is also going to start hosting high school camps again, opportunities that have been huge for the program to identity under-the-radar prospects who have eventually earned scholarships and walk-on opportunities.

While the recruiting calendar will normalize, college athletics is likely to undergo a systemic shift in the months to come with rules governing name, image, and likeness (NIL). Alabama, Mississippi, and New Mexico are states that have passed NIL legislation that takes effect July 1, while a number of other states have bills being considered that will effectively change the model of college athletes and amateurism.

Chryst said the Wisconsin department is working on several scenarios and is prepared for the topic to come up on the recruiting trail.

“We have got a number of people in the department that have spent a lot of time on it,” Chryst said. “I don’t know if any of us know exactly what it’s going to be, but you have good enough indicators that something is coming, and we better be prepared for a number of different scenarios.

“If done right, boy, it makes a lot of sense. How do we do it the right way and how do you do it in a way where players can take advantage of it but also not get distracted by it or get in trouble because of it?”

While the specter of major policy changes is on the horizon, one change that will likely remain in the Wisconsin staff’s use of technology to introduce prospects to the Madison campus without having to leave the comforts of home.

“There are lessons learned (from the dead period), and I give a lot of credit to so many other people that found a way to really make Zoom something you can use and where you can connect,” Chryst said. “For the longest time, you tried to get on the phone with guys. Now in essence you can make contact, but you can show them. There’s a lot of what we used this past year that you want to carry forward. Certainty in the recruiting part, it will be beneficial.”