Starting with high school freshmen this year, it will get just a little harder to become eligible to participate in Division 1 sports right out of high school. The NCAA eligibility center has decided to increase their eligibility standards for Division 1 athletes. These new rules will go into effect starting August 1, 2015. Whereas students prior to 2015 needed a minimum core GPA of 2.0 and 1010 SAT (Math and Critical Reading) or an ACT combined score of 86 in order to participate in competition, students after 2015 will need a minimum core GPA of 2.3 and 1080 SAT, or an ACT combined score of 93 to participate in their first year.
There also is a new rule put in place to redshirt incoming freshmen. With the present eligibility rules, a student-athlete was either eligible or not eligible. Now there are three outcomes: Eligible to compete right away (Full Qualifier), not eligible at all (Nonqualifer), and eligible to join team and practice, but not compete in first year (redshirt). Now this is where it becomes tricky! The sliding scale (core GPA with SAT or ACT) for the redshirt option is very similar to the present regular eligibility scale, except the SAT requirement has gone up 10 points for each GPA (i.e. 2.0 GPA will require 1020 SAT). However, the combined ACT score has stayed the same (i.e. 2.0 GPA will require 86 combined score).
The final change for students to be eligible as full qualifiers is that 10 of their 16 core courses must be completed and “locked in” by the start of their senior year. In the present format, students can use any of their approved classes for eligibility purposes until high school graduation.
For those who do not know, the core GPA is calculated from 16 approved courses throughout a student’s high school career. Not every course a student takes will be approved by the NCAA; therefore it cannot be used in the core GPA calculation. Courses that must be used for the core GPA are 4 years of English, 3 years of mathematics, 2 years of science (1 year with lab), 1 year additional English, mathematics, or science, 2 years of social science, and four years of additional approved courses (i.e. foreign language, social sciences, philosophy etc.). Once a core GPA is established a student must have at least the minimum SAT/ACT score associated with that GPA. Sliding scales can be found online, or by visiting the NCAA eligibility website at www.eligibilitycenter.org .
Once again, these new eligibility standards will not go into effect until August 1st of 2015, which are current high school freshmen. As always, if you have any questions about NCAA eligibility please do not hesitate to contact your counselor to make sure you are on track to being eligible!
