Why June has become the most important month

The Hotline is delighted to provide Pac-12 fans with a regular dive into the recruiting process through the eyes and ears of Brandon Huffman, the Seattle-based national recruiting editor for 247Sports. He submitted the following report on May 29 …

June is mere days away, which means the busiest month on the recruiting calendar is set to begin.

While the early signing period is poised to move to the first week of December (from the third week) and the traditional National Signing Day still takes place in early February, June has become, by far, the most eventful month of the year in football recruiting.

It’s a crucial time, 30 days packed with evaluation camps on campuses, mega-camps hosted by smaller colleges, official visits and a barrage of commitments.

The recruiting calendar has accelerated to an astonishing degree. No longer do college coaches use December to finalize their classes. At that point in the year, they are nose-deep in transfer portal business, fighting to maintain their own rosters and poach players from other teams.

Meanwhile, high school recruits are selecting their schools before their senior season begins, resulting in more and more schools shifting official visits to the spring of a prospect’s junior year. But when in the spring?

The NCAA’s evaluation window runs from mid-April through late-May. Head coaches aren’t permitted on the road during that period.

The added layer has made June that much more important. Schools delay hosting official visits during the evaluation period, which coincides with spring practice, and push the visits into June.

The majority of incoming freshmen are on campus by then, creating a better atmosphere for visiting prospects. And there’s no reason to delay those visits until later in the summer, for July and August fall within the dead period for recruiting.

With the evaluation period in the early spring and the dead period in the heart of the summer, June has become the sweet spot for official visits.

That alone keeps schools busy.

But there’s more to June than official visits. The mega-camps that have become an important piece of the recruiting process on the West Coast are part of the action, too.

Sacramento State created the crown jewel under the watch of former head coach Troy Taylor (now at Stanford) and director of football operations Garrett Wolfe.

With Wolfe having moved over to San Jose State, the Spartans are adding their own mega camp, the South Bay Showcase, giving coaches another destination in Northern California.

The Northwest Showcase at Western Oregon, the Redlands Camps, the PLU Showcase at Pacific Lutheran, the NAU Camps at Northern Arizona, the AveryStrong Showcase at University of Puget Sound and the Gem State Showcase in Boise are other prominent mega camps in June that undoubtedly will draw multiple head coaches and assistants from across major college football.

The recruiting calendar speeds up every year — the majority of high school juniors have already been offered scholarships.

But the mega camps and regular on-campus camps provide a better opportunity to evaluate prospects, make offers to sophomores and freshmen and get first eyes on prospects entering high school in the fall.

While there are still some overlooked juniors who will emerge as top prospects in the fall, the camps freely allow coaches to shift their focus to the underclassmen.

Combine all the official visits for juniors with the mega-camps for younger prospects and June matters more than ever.