Thursday, July 24, 2014

New NCAA D1 Eligibility Rules

Did you know that for anyone who wants to be a D1 athlete enrolling after August first of 2016, that you'll have to meet new eligibility requirements? This will impact anyone in the class of 2016 or later. If this is you, it is time to familiarize yourself with the requirements that you will be responsible for meeting.

First of all, after 2016, there will be new terminology regarding eligibility. Those that meet all requirements will still be called full qualifiers. There will also be non-qualifiers. However, those formally known as partial qualifiers will now be called academic redshirts. Players will receive aid to go to school, and can practice during the semester or quarter. They cannot play.

Aside from the terminology, here are the major changes.
The minimum qualifying GPA has been raised to 2.3. So, regardless of how good your SAT or ACT score is, if you don't at least have a 2.3 in your core classes, you won't qualify.
The SAT/ACT sliding scale has changed as well. Make sure to check your CORE GPA and compare it to your test scores through the sliding scale.

Finally, you must have completed 10 core courses before beginning your senior year. This is to keep student-athletes from scrambling to complete most of their cores during their senior year. When this happens, often it occurs dishonestly. This rule is to prevent that. This means you can complete and count no more than 6 core courses in your senior year to still qualify. Also, 7 of those 10 cores must be in English Science or Math. Make sure to pay close attention to the classes you're taking. Once you begin your senior year, those courses get "locked in," which means that you cannot replace the core if you take it during your senior year or during a prep year. Remember that this is to become a full qualifier out of high school.

Academic redshirts have different requirements. To be an academic redshirt, you are not held to the 10 credits before your senior year rule. You also have a different sliding scale. However, you cannot play competitively during your first year or college. You can practice during your first term in school, however, you must meet college eligibility requirements to continue to practice during the second term. Here is a change though: Academic redshirts do not lose a year of eligibility. This was noted in an ESPN article I suggest you all familiarize yourself with http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Important_New_Rules/High_School_IE_Standards.pdf.

In both cases, you still are required to complete 16 core courses of at least:
4 years of English
3 years of Math (Alg 1 or higher)
2 years of science (natural or physical)
1 additional year of the 3 above cores
2 years of social studies
4 additional years of the above courses or, foreign language, philosophy or comparative religion.
*Source cited, NCAA.org.

The new sliding scales can be found here:  http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Important_New_Rules/High_School_IE_Standards.pdf

If you don't meet the requirements of a full-qualifier or an academic redshirt, then you're a non-qualifier and cannot receive academic aid from a university. You'll most likely need to go to a Juco to qualify.

As the ESPN article points out, nearly 40% of those that qualified to play division 1 sports this year would not be full qualifiers under the new rules. These would be academic redshirts. Also, this is a major hit to prep schools and those trying to reclassify. You've got to have those 10 core credits by the end of your junior year, or you're out of luck.
 If you don't want to be a part of the 40% that can't play their freshman year, I'd make sure to check my transcript closely, and make sure I'm on track to qualify.

For more information, follow me on twitter @coachdesautels

Sources
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Eligibility_Rules/High_School_IE_Standards.pdf
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/football/story/_/id/7885522/new-incoming-eligibility-standards-create-term


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