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Sunday, June 1, 2008
THE NCAA ELIGIBILITY CENTER
St. Paul, MN
By: Ed Hitchcock
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Photo(s) By: Kyle Danztler/MyActionPortraits.com
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Are you registered?
Last year, 380,000 students who enrolled in America’s colleges and universities participated in athletics. Before you can participate in NCAA Division I or Division II athletics you must be certified as eligible by the NCAA Eligibility Center. Eligibility for participation in Division III athletics is determined exclusively by the college or university.
The purpose behind the NCAA Eligibility Center is to determine your eligibility as you progress through high school, well in advance of your college applications. The Eligibility Center determines both your academic and amateurism eligibility. The NCAA requires certification of students who are entering their freshman year or who are transferring to a Division I or Division II school.
You should register at the beginning of your junior year and can do it by going online to www.ncaaclearinghouse.org. The registration fee is $50.00 and may be waived under certain circumstances.
The academic eligibility section of the registration includes a Student Release Form. The release authorizes your high school to send to the Eligibility Center your transcript, test scores, proof of graduation and other academic information. In the release you also authorize the Eligibility Center to send your academic information to all colleges that request your eligibility status.
NCAA academic requirements for Division I participation includes the following:
• Graduation from high school.
• Completion of 16 core courses set forth by the NCAA.
• A minimum required grade point average in your core courses.
• A combined SAT or ACT sum score that matches your core-course grade point average on a test score sliding scale (the NCAA has a table for this calculation).
The amateurism section of the Eligibility Center’s website will ask you several questions about your participation in pre-college sports activities. You will answer questions about the following topics:
• Contracts, tryouts and practice with professional teams.
• Salary for participating in athletics.
• Prize money.
• Benefits from or agreements with a sports agent.
• Delayed initial full-time college enrollment to participate in organized sports competition.
You should regularly update the amateurism section of the website so that schools recruiting you will have up to date information.
The NCAA.org website also provides a helpful handbook entitled “Guide for the College Bound Student-Athlete.” The Guide explains the Eligibility Center and goes into greater detail about the NCAA academic and amateurism eligibility requirements.
Certification with the NCAA Eligibility Center does not guarantee your admission into a college. You must still apply for and be accepted by the school. However, certification by the NCAA is a major step in the process. Make sure you register at the beginning of your junior year, update the amateurism section of the website regularly and stay on track with the academic requirements. This will allow you to say “Yes” when an athletic/academic opportunity presents itself.
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