With recruiting at a halt indefinitely — meaning no unofficial visits, official visits or off-campus recruiting by coaches — the recruiting cycle in the 2021 football class is already different.

The question is how different will it become?

The spring months have taken on a greater importances in the football recruiting calendar over the last couple of years. With unofficial visits becoming the norm and official visits increasing in the spring, recruiting in March and April is greater than it’s ever been.

For example, Raneiria Dillworth was scheduled to make a decision in the next 6-8 weeks after using March and April to visit as many as schools. Running back TreVeyon Henderson has eliminated the Vols from consideration. He was scheduled to visit Tennessee during spring practice. That inability to visit has currently prevented the Vols from being a finalist.

So with no recruiting, other than phone calls/texts, for an indefinite period, what’s the result?

What happens to the recruiting calendar is going to be shape how many classes form and when certain players come off the board. What changes does the NCAA make to the calendar this year? How do coaches adjust and how do prospects adjust?

“I think kids will still commit just not at the same rate without coaches in their faces,” Mike Farrell, Rivals director of recruiting offered.

“But it’s become a placeholder world in recruiting and many kids will want to at least hold their spot. The biggest thing that will come out of this will probably be the elimination of the early signing period for just this class and mass chaos down the stretch. I foresee many, many de-commitments this cycle.”

Could the December signing period be waved in 2020? That's too early to say for sure. That’s going to depend on what happens the next few months.

What about the evaluation period for football coaches?

An evaluation period is a time where coaches can go to high schools, watch practices or watch a prospect participate in other sports. That evaluation period is scheduled to run from April 15-May 31st.

If on April 15th, the on-campus recruiting becomes active (and that seems optimistic right now), then the evaluation period won’t be affected. If the evaluation period is cut into then the biggest recruiting wins over the next few weeks/months is going to be who lands a camp visit.

“Summer camps will be key and the schools that get the best players on campus for those will have a huge advantage,” Farrell believes.

The other question is what happens to the summer dead period?

The summer dead period is set to start June 22-June 24. During that time, prospects can’t visit campuses. Will the NCAA turn part or all of that time into a live period where prospects can visit to off-set the missed time in March and April?

In the coming days and weeks, there are going to be plenty of unknowns and plenty of decisions that have to be made. In the world of football recruiting, those decisions could be of great impact.

The biggest of those being how they affect a recruiting calendar that’s already seeing major changes.