Everyone's Favorite Topic (The NCAA)

Last year, we had a great article from Coach Austin Alexander (Elon) concerning recruiting. With the major changes coming out concerning the strengthening of academics overall and scholarship blending in particular, it's probably time to review the essentials for the future student-athlete.

If you wish to play college ball, grades are becoming more and more important.

Part 1: Academic Performance Issues faced by Colleges/Universities

At the end of last month, an academic reform package aimed at improving the educational success of student-athletes and holding universities and teams accountable was passed. This next year will measure a "bench-mark" toward academic success and it will be refined in the 2005-06 seasons after which it will be fully implemented.

The NCAA will have the ability to hold institutions and teams accountable for the academic progress of their student-athletes, called the "incentives/disincentives program". These guidelines will penalize those programs that fail to meet established requirements for educational progress.

The penalties include (for the university/college):
1. Loss of a scholarship for one year if a student-athlete on scholarship leaves school in poor academic standing.
2, Repeated penalties associated with academic failure over time may include:

• Scholarship reductions
• Recruiting Limitations
• Ineligibility for team postseason competition/championships

3. An academic-progress rate, or APR, will be calculated by the NCAA and include all scholarship student-athletes entering an institution. The package also will establish a graduation-success rate based on a six-year timeframe for graduation and including all scholarship student-athletes entering the institution.
4. The incentives/disincentives program will require that institutions submit to the NCAA annual documentation showing compliance with the academic-progress rate.

Part 2: Scholarship Blending and the impact on Athletics

In the past, Colleges/University could develop their own guidelines for academic awards and this academic help was "blended" with athletic scholarship money to help defray the overall expense for the student-athlete. This is still available, but, in part, it has been changed to become more stringent. In certain states, the lotteries are used to help fund college educations. If students in those states have a GPA above 3.0, they are eligible to receive some academic aid. In order to level the playing field (and not have 32 players on some baseball teams receiving academic scholarships where it wouldn't be available in other areas), the NCAA has set guidelines on when academic money offered to a student has to be counted towards the 11.7 scholarships that may be offered in baseball (or 9 in basketball, or 85 in football, etc, etc).

Basically the rule is this: If you receive Athletic Scholarship money, any academic money you receive will be reviewed and must be also counted AGAINST the athletic scholarship money UNLESS you meet one of the following 3 NATIONAL criteria:

• Top 10% in class (top 20% for D2)
• Overall GPA (Core Courses only) of 3.5 unweighted
• 1200 on your College Boards (1140 in D2)

This creates a controversy and a challenge for the university. A student who takes a regular HS Math course, graded on a 4.0 scale may be more inclined to make the blending rule (by having a higher unweighted GPA) than the student who is taking IB or AP Calculus, but only pulls a "B". Under the NCAA guidelines, that student is penalized for lowering his overall GPA but is more likely to aid the university in maintaining their overall academic performance.

Interesting conflict.

Summary: Not a lot of people like the NCAA, but this does stress the importance of Academics and highlights the NCAA's emphasis on the word "STUDENT" in Student-Athlete.

 

Ramifications of the new NCAA regulations as it pertains to JUCO's

This is an interesting topic. Basically, academic achievement is based upon the percentage of classes completed towards graduation in your core subject/major. The NCAA goal is to be on a "5-year plan" towards graduation. They require that, for each academic year, you have completed 20% of your future graduation requirements in order to remain eligible.

With the "20/40/60/80" rule in place, there is increased pressure on the students attending JUCO's. On transfer to a 4-year institution, (say, after their sophomore year), they must have completed 40% of their graduation requirements at their NEW Institution. This means that they have to stay on top of the course requirements within their future major and also ensure that the course they are taking will "transfer" to a 4-year institution.

Most JUCO's do an excellent job of preparing their students and ensuring their future academic success, but certain 4-year institutions don't "like" to take transfered credits. The more "transferred" credits they allow, the less income they generate.

If you plan on attending a JUCO enroute to a 4-year institution, check with them concerning which avenues of study have been fully accepted and which colleges and universities have accepted their credits before you enroll. You don't want to get into a situation where you are not academically eligible for a year through no fault of your own.

Remember: You have the ultimate responsibility for your life ... not them.

 

This is a very interesting and yet very disturbing topic. I do feel that student-athletes need to be held accountable, but at the same time, I feel that these new NCAA rules (if I am reading them correctly) will cause some student athletes to take the easier path, and not take the honors, or AP courses that they would normally take. This, to me is sending a very wrong message! The students have been told time and time again from parents, teachers, and counselors to take the honors and the AP classes because they look much better on college transcripts, not to mention these courses help better prepare the student for college. It is a catch 22 situation: if the student-athlete takes the honors and AP classes that they need to take to be better prepared for college, and the GPA falls because of taking the harder classes, then they may not be afforded the blended academic/athletic scholarship that they would be afforded if they take the easier route and take regular classes to "fatten" their GPA. If they take the regular classes instead of honors and AP classes, then they will be less prepared for the college classes, then in turn will probably not have as good a chance as making good grades in college, and the college may suffer because of this. Not to mention, some high schools have more stringent academic standards than other high schools. I hope the NCAA thinks carefully before implementing these guidelines if they are not already etched in stone. We all want our student-athletes to succeed in the classroom and on the playing field, but they must be prepared to succeed in college, whether they are fortunate enough to play sports in college or not. Honors classes and AP classes help prepare the high school student for college, and the student SHOULD NOT be penalized for taking these classes, which in essence I feel this new NCAA rule will be doing!

 

Crawdad ....

You are exactly right ... BUT

The end result is that academic scholarship money may become more difficult to obtain and blended scholarships will become less common.

If a student has taken a difficult HS course load, has performed well and is in line to receive a good academic scholarship at a university/college but doesn't "quite" make the cut for blending, he may find he/she is in the position of receiving academic money alone. When that occurs, the NCAA isn't involved. This may lead to more "recruited" players who aren't receiving athletic scholarship money and are just receiving the normal institutional assistance that would be available for the general student body.

On the other hand, these colleges/universities are being held to a performance standard AFTER the student has been accepted. In that respect, it's in the college/universities interest to get the best STUDENT-athlete.

Lets make the subject even more difficult: What is determined in a GPA?

Example: Under Division I NCAA rules, you are required to have 2 mathmatic courses. You have take 3 courses during HS in math and have received the following grades.

• Algebra I, A
• Geometry, B
• Trigonometry,C

Under NCAA guidelines, if you have EXCEEDED the number of courses required in this particular subject area, so the top grades are taken in order to calculate your core GPA. In this case, even though your true GPA in Mathmatics was 3.0, your NCAA GPA would be 3.5 .... hmmmm.

 

"NCBBallFan"

Thanks for helping to clarify some of this for me!!

 

Part of the reason for the clarification now is the more stringent requirements on the 2005 graduating class. The 2008 (freshmen this fall) have an even MORE stringent requirement to meet.

The 2004 Class was required to have 13 Core Courses, the 2005 Class had the core core requirement increased to 14 AND Computer Science courses were eliminated from the list of eligible courses.

In 2008, the number of core courses increases to 16, we presents even less opportunity to "pull up" a bad grade, since more classes are included in the basic calculation. Here is a list of the core courses for the 2008 grads ... plan early:

• 4 years of English
• 3 years of mathematics (Algebra I or higher)
• 2 years of natural/physical science (one must be a lab science)
• 1 year of additional English, math or science
• 2 years of social studies
• 4 years of additional core courses (from any area listed above, or from foreign language, nondoctrinal religion or philosophy)

 

Am I incorrect to assume that if a student takes more than the minimun number of core courses that the lowest that the top # of those grades are used regardless of the area of study?

 

You are correct. Only the best grades are used. An example would be the requirement for "Additional Academic Courses (3 required)".

These could include excess courses in Mathmatics, Science, History or Foreign Language. If you really, REALLY blew that French II course, it doesn't have to be included, provided you have enough other subjects/courses completed.

 

That's the way I have always handled it with my players, just wanted to make sure I was right.

 

Though this thread has been about the importance of Academics as it relates to scholarship offers, I wanted to include the minimum requirements for participation in college athletics.

Generally speaking, the NCAA requires you to have a 2.5 GPA and a College Board score of 820 BUT that is now on a sliding scale. Basically, the lower your GPA, the higher your board score needs to be in order to be eligible to play. Most colleges/universities have more stringent standards than the NCAA.

Examples:

GPA, Board Score
2.5, 820 (2.5 or above ... 820 is the minimum)
2.4, 860
2.3, 900
2.2, 940
2.1, 970
2.0, 1010​

Let's say that, for the sake of argument, you are missing a core course required for the NCAA in order to participate as a freshman, but you otherwise academically qualify for both the school in question and for HS graduation. In the future there should be two possible alternatives:

#1. You may still be offered an Athletic scholarship and be red-shirted until you meet the academic requirements.
#2. Summer financial aid. This measure provides colleges and universities the option to extend financial aid to incoming student-athletes the summer before their freshman year, so that these student-athletes can begin meeting academic goals. This summer financial aid, depending on the institution, may become available to all incoming freshman athletes in order to "jump-start" their education and not available just for individuals who need to make up a needed course.


The Summer financial aid is a new program just being brought into existance.