The Benefit of USC's No-Visit Policy for Recruits

The Benefit of USC's No-Visit Policy for Recruits

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The Benefit of USC's No-Visit Policy for Recruits
usc trojans recruiting class commitments no visit policy miami hurricanes eli woodard lincoln riley 2027 recruit receiver
Aug 30, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley watches from the sidelines against the Missouri State Bears in the first half at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The USC Trojans have a very specific rule when it comes to players that are committed to them. Once they commit to USC, they are not allowed to go on visits to other schools.

USC's No-Visit Policy for Commits

usc trojans recruiting class commitments no visit policy miami hurricanes eli woodard lincoln riley 2027 recruit receiver
Aug 30, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley watches from the sidelines against the Missouri State Bears in the first half at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Class of 2027 recruit, wide receiver Eli Woodard committed to the USC Trojans back in February of 2026. A few months later in May, Woodard decommitted. What changed in that time period? He received an offer from the Miami Hurricanes and California Golden Bears.

"After a lot of talks with my family and praying, I have decided to decommit from USC and fully reopen my recruitment," Woodard posted on his X account in May.

The way USC now approaches recruiting, if a player is committed to them, they don't let that player visit other schools. After receiving other offers, the only way for Woodard to be able to check out those schools on visits would be to decomitt. That's what he did.

usc trojans recruiting class commitments no visit policy miami hurricanes eli woodard lincoln riley 2027 recruit receiver
Jan 19, 2026; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal against the Indiana Hoosiers during the College Football Playoff National Championship game at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Per 247Sports, Woodard went on official visits to Miami, Cal, and UCLA after decommiting from USC. On June 30, he committed to Miami.

Woodard is a four-star recruit out of Temecula, California and is ranked as the No. 22 wide receiver in the 2027 class. While it does hurt USC to lose him to Miami, his decommitment coming in May could have in the end helped out both parties.

If USC didn't have this no-visit policy for commits, Woodard very well might have visited Miami while still being committed to USC. The no-visit policy ended up just getting Woodard ahead of things. It wouldn't have been helpful for a decommitment to happen later in the recruiting cycle compared to earlier on.

usc trojans recruiting class commitments no visit policy miami hurricanes eli woodard lincoln riley 2027 recruit receiver
Sep 6, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley shakes hands with running back Eli Sanders (1) after a touchdown during the second half against the Georgia Southern Eagles at United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

That's the benefit of this policy. If there is enough uncertainty for a commit to want to go see another school, then maybe they shouldn't be committed to where they are in the first place. Decommitting also doesn't completely rule out going back to that school.

If Woodard decommitted and realized after his visits to other places that he was right to begin with about USC, he could still end up signing there.

USC reporter Ryan Dyrud thinks that the no-visit policy is a good one and even compared it to dating.

"The no-visit policy kind of just severs the ties quicker," Dryud said in a video posted on his X account. "It's like if you're dating and someone in the relationship is like 'I like you, but I'm not in love with you.' Let's not waste each other's time and let's just move on…I think in reality what this policy does is it just works out best for everyone."

USC's 2027 recruiting class is currently at 14 commits, with nine coming from recruits rated either four or five stars. Rivals ranks this class No. 11 in the country and No. 4 in the Big Ten. USC's 2026 class was ranked No. 1 in the country so there's work to do for the Trojans if they want to challenge the ranking of their most recent class.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/usc as The Benefit of USC's No-Visit Policy for Recruits.

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