For more than a year, health and safety protocols have prevented programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision from conducting the in-person evaluations so essential to compiling team-specific recruiting boards — the tiered, by-position ranking of prospects in a given recruiting cycle.
Amid the unique circumstances created by the coronavirus pandemic, the awkwardness caused by an inability to hold face-to-face meetings for most of the 2021 cycle was mitigated by several factors. For one, prospects in the 2021 class had been able to make unofficial visits to FBS campuses during the previous year, including up to the moment when the NCAA placed a moratorium on all visits as a result of COVID-19.