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Oct 1, 2026; New York, NY, USA; Villanova Wildcats head coach Kevin Willard speaks at 2026 Big East Media Day at Marriott Marquis.
Don’t even the Villanova Wildcats and head coach Kevin Willard to add any class of 2027 high school recruits to their roster for next season, regarding of how highly rated they are.
After all, why would you add an unknown quantity to your team when you could simply move forward with grown men who have already proven their ability to perform at the college level?
That was the point Willard made Thursday at Big East Media Day in New York City when addressing the current landscape of college sports.
Villanova Coach Kevin Willard Isn’t Recruiting High School Players At All
With the recent expansion of college eligibility and the wild west that is the transfer portal, proven college athletes have become a hot commodity.
So much so that recruiting high school players, even the best high school players in the nation, is something that Willard isn’t particularly interested in doing.
Kevin Willard admits he isn’t recruiting any high school players this year 👀
“We’re not recruiting a high school kid this year… just because of the fifth-year rule. We have six guys that can come back for a fifth year. So, I’d much rather have one of my players come back,… pic.twitter.com/uY7FmBJTXU
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) October 1, 2026
“We’re not recruiting a high school kid this year, so that’s probably a big change,” Willard told members of the media. “(It’s) Just because of the fifth-year rule.
“We have six guys that can come back for a fifth year. So, I’d much rather have one of my players come back than bring in a high school kid”
Willard does think things will normalize slightly in the future.
“Moving forward, this kind of reminds me of what happened with COVID,” he continued. “A lot of high school kids and a lot of high school players got penalized, and it wasn’t their fault. I think after a year or two, this system will flush out, and I think coaches will go back to recruiting high school players.”
Concerns over limited opportunities for high school athletes are something that parents have expressed for years, and now it seems those concerns were justified.
Hopefully, Willard is correct in that the system will sort itself out. But in the meantime, a number of high school athletes are being left out to dry. And it’s impossible to foresee what future changes could continue to upset the college sports landscape.