NCAA Volleyball Recruiting Questionnaire: What Athletes Need to Know

Over the summer, the NCAA made a decision that has gone mostly unnoticed on this side. I won't talk too much about the "why" behind the decision because that will more than likely take me down a giant rabbit hole that is not really beneficial at this point. The NCAA decided to change the rules surrounding the volleyball recruiting questionnaire.

It went unnoticed because we had just moved to the other side of June 15th for 2026 class, so the impact for that class was nonexistent. The 2027 class might not notice a huge difference at this point because there wasn't a TON of engagement occurring between college coaches and athletes in that class. But as we move to the later parts of the fall season and prep for the club season, this will potentially make things look unexpected if you don't know about the change.

What is the issue with D1 schools NOT being allowed to send questionnaires to athletes anymore?

One of the bigger things from my end is that we lose a mechanism to gauge how interested a school is. We used to be able to have "questionnaires," "camp invites," and "showing up at your court" as some of the ways we could know if a school is interested in an athlete or not. Now that's gone. I still imagine that I will hear things like, "We'd love for her to fill out our questionnaire if she's interested," but maybe I won't! This piece is frustrating for me because it's ALREADY hard for these athletes to figure out if schools are legitimately interested or not. This certainly helps less.

Another reason is that now athletes are forced to take an extra step IF they are interested. This will impact athletes because now if they choose NOT to take the extra steps and go to a school's website and fill out the questionnaire, then that school might assume the athlete isn't interested and move on to someone else. The ownership for filling out the questionnaire (like many other things) falls on the athlete. College coaches can't just put it in front of you anymore. If you want a school to know you are interested, you'll want/need to go to their website and let them know. There is already so much on these athletes when it comes to the recruiting process, and this just adds a little more to their plate.

Should you just go fill out questionnaires of any and all schools?

For the 2027 class, I wouldn't necessarily suggest that. If you have the time and you really want to, then go for it. But you also need to be mindful of your own time. If you can't play or compete for a roster spot at TCU or Baylor, then you don't need to fill out their questionnaire. Take a look at the list of schools you have put together, make sure those schools would be a good fit for you, then go fill out their questionnaire. Looking at just ONE school in a conference? I would suggest looking at the other schools they play against every year and consider filling out their questionnaires as well. Keep in mind that this does take time and you are only doing 1 piece of what you need to be doing in the recruiting process.

Filling out a questionnaire isn't the only step in this process. There is still more work to be done AFTER you do that. Going forward, if you want to play at a D1 school, you will need to take it upon yourself to go find their recruit questionnaire and fill it out.