D3 Official visit?

No, if they are just hosting him. Yes, if they are paying for transportation, lodging, etc.

I thought the 5 official visit limit only pertained to D1 and D2? Though there seems to be ambiguity in the two bold-faced statements below.

From the 2011-12 Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete:

D1:
• Allowed beginning opening day of classes your senior year.
• You are limited to one official visit per college up to a maximum of five official visits to Divisions I and II colleges.

D2:
• You may make official visits starting the opening day of classes your senior year.
• You may make only one official visit per college and up to a maximum of five official visits to Division I colleges. There is no limit to official visits to Division II colleges.

D3:
• You may make official visits starting the opening day of classes your senior year.
• You may make only one official visit per college.

Hopefully one of the resident NCAA rules experts, like 3-Fingered Glove, will chime in with some clarification.

The D2 rules were changed this year, and it does make for a confusing situation. It helps to remember that each of the three divisions have their own rules. For example, a D2 college has to respect the D2 rules, and so does a player while he is at a D2 school. The rules of the the other two divisions don't apply to them.

When a D1 college is planning to offer an official visit, it needs to find out how many official visits the prospective student athlete has taken. If he has taken 5 or more visits to D1 or D2 colleges, the D1 school can't provide him with an official visit. He's over the limit. Visits to D3, NAIA, and JCs are not counted.

The same requirement used to apply to D2 colleges until this year. Now, a D2 school can provide an official visit even if the player has already taken 5 or more offical vists to D1/D2 schools.

As before, a D3 school can provide an offical visit without limit.

So, as the rules now stand:
1) Any prospective student athlete can make an unlimited number of official visits to D3 colleges, and none of the divisions care.
2) A D2 college can provide an official visit to a prospective athlete regardless of other visits the player may have taken.
3) A D1 school can provide an official visit unless the player has already taken 5 or more official visits.

I was not sure after I posted so I pulled up the recruited athlete doc on the NCAA site. Just confirms what 3FG posted. Interesting is that it is silent on the DIII visits.

Official visits • You may make official visits starting the opening day
of classes your senior year.
• You may make only one official visit per college and up
to a maximum of five official visits to Division I colleges.
There is no limit to official visits to Division II colleges.

BOF,
But what you just posted is different from the paraphrased actual rules (the Division Manuals) that I posted. It is also different than the quote provided by Sandman, which is consistent with the manuals.

Can you post a link to the "recruited athlete doc"?

So official visits to D3 schools does not affect official visits to D1 & D2 schools if I'm understanding this correctly?

I just cut and pasted it from the "recruited athlete document.

The manuals are here.

http://ncaapublications.com/p-...ual-august-2011.aspx

I cut and pasted it from here. If you go to page 23 there is a chart. But is is curiously silent on official d3 official visits. Thurm if it is critical call the ncaa. I found them extremely helpful when I had a 3-2 questions.

http://www.ncaapublications.co...ctdownloads/CBSA.pdf

Well, that's not a "recruited athlete" document; it the Guide for the College Bound Student Athlete and a player need not be recruited to benefit from reading it. Sandman had already quoted from it in post #3 in this thread, including the exact part you quoted. Sandman did point out that the material you quoted only applies to D2 and D3 colleges, and not to D1, and his post primarily revolved around why there is a seeming discrepency between the D1 summary (only 5 visits to both D1 and D2 colleges) and the D2/D3 summary. I replied to that, explaining why it isn't discrepent.

Regarding D3 schools, there is no rule in any Division which limts the number of official visits a prospective SA may make to a D3 school. That's why the summary is silent on the subject: there is no rule against it.

Just to muddy the waters a bit, and perhaps my reference is outdated, but according to this website for baseball coaches, D3 visits are unlimited ONLY IF you end up enrolling at a D3 school.

See this link.

Well, that document is probably outdated, since it doesn't mention the new D2 rules. Regardless, the implication that D3 visits are only unlimited if the the player ends up enrolling in a D3 school is flatly wrong. You can check that for yourself by reading 13.6.2.2 in the D1 manual.
13.6.2.2 Number of Official Visits—Prospective Student-Athlete Limitation. A prospective student-athlete may take a maximum of five expense-paid visits, with not more than one permitted to any single institution. This restriction applies regardless of the number of sports in which the prospective student-athlete is involved and only for expense-paid visits to Division I or II institutions. (Revised: 1/12/04)

D2 used to have the same rule, but no longer has any rule limiting the number of official visits.

One might also infer from the article that a player could lose eligibility if he takes too many official visits, but that is not true either. There is no penalty for taking too many official visits, at least for the player. In baseball, each college is responsible to report every official visit, and to ensure that the college does not provide one if to a player who has reached his limit.