When you’re an athlete in high school and plan to play sports once you get to college, you probably already know that there are NCAA rules for the college-bound student-athlete. Simply put, the NCAA expects a lot out of you as both an athlete and as a student, especially if you’re a young person looking for an athletic scholarship. In order to remain active in the sport, you’ll have to meet certain academic requirements, and if you’re curious about what they are, you’re in the right place. Let’s delve into the NCAA requirements for college so you’re prepared to set yourself up for success as a prospective university athlete!
Just the Basics
First of all, there are three divisions in NCAA sports, and most of the rules you’ll learn about here apply to all three. Student athletes need to not only graduate from high school but also take certain courses while they’re there. In general, the NCAA determines a student’s academic eligibility requirements by looking at three things: their GPA from the 16 required NCAA core courses, their SAT/ACT test scores, and their high school coursework. All three are considered important, but in different ways.
Regardless of which NCAA division you’re in, there are some basic requirements for getting into and staying in the school of your choice as a student athlete. The NCAA eligibility center website can help you with the details, but the basic requirements include graduation from high school, completion of a total of 16 core courses, a minimum GPA for those courses, and a qualifying ACT or SAT score. In addition, you also have to request your final amateurism certification from the NCAA eligibility center.
Just what are the NCAA-approved core courses – the courses that are required of student athletes in both high school and college? They consist of courses such as English, math, natural or physical science, social science, and courses such as comparative religion or philosophy and a foreign language requirement. The number of years you have to take these courses depends on the division you’re in, because the three division levels have their own requirements in addition to the basics.
For instance, Division I athletes have to take four years of English, while Division II athletes only need three. The NCAA GPA requirements vary by division as well, which is why identifying which schools are D1, D2, and D3 is so crucial before applying and pursuing athletic recruitment. For example, your minimum GPA for Division I is 2.3, whereas for Division II it is 2.2. Both divisions require two years of social science and require additional hours of subjects such as math, philosophy, and English. Division III sets its own academic requirements and therefore, the NCAA has nothing to do with those requirements. Since the academics for NCAA college athletes are rather strict, you are certain to graduate with a very well-rounded education simply by ensuring that you qualify for athletic recruitment eligibility as a college-bound high school student athlete, whether or not you obtain an athletics scholarship or play at the collegiate level.
The Basics and Then Some
The NCAA has specific requirements for entering an athletic program, i.e., entering college, and remaining in the program. Depending on what division you’re in, you can find out both the basic requirements and the additional requirements needed to participate in college sports, but let’s start with the test score requirements pertaining to the ACT/SAT first. To participate in NCAA sports, in addition to taking core subjects in high school and college, a sliding scale is used to determine eligibility.
You have to take either the ACT or the SAT, as well as the core subjects, but there’s a method they use where they combine your GPA and your SAT or ACT test scores to get a number that “qualifies” you. For example, if you discover when you graduate that your GPA is a 2.3 (in your core subjects), you’ll need either a 980 combined score if you took the SAT or a 75 ACT sum score in order to qualify when you’re in Division I. In other words, they take both your GPA and your standardized test scores into consideration when qualifying you. This means that if you’re weak in one area but strong in the other, you may still qualify.
You can also take the SAT or ACT as many times as you like, so if your SAT or ACT score isn’t as high as you’d like it to be (or isn’t quite high enough to offset your GPA), you can feel free to take it again so that you can improve the number and get a higher test score (and higher combined score to improve your eligibility). Remember, the higher your test score, the lower your GPA has to be, although most prospective athletes work hard to do their best in both areas. That said, it’s still good to know that a low test score doesn’t necessarily disqualify you from participating in sports once you get to college.
How to Get Started – It’s Never Too Soon
If you want to play sports in college because you’re a high school athlete, you can’t wait until your very last year to start planning for it. In fact, the NCAA has laid out certain recommendations for anyone who is interested in athletic participation once they get to college. Here are some of them:
- Freshman year: meet with a guidance counselor and get the list of required core courses you’ll need to take to graduate and meet their requirements
- Sophomore year: register with the NCAA Eligibility Center for the first time
- Junior year: take the SAT or ACT for the first time and send the results to the NCAA, and enter 9999 for the code
- Senior year: take the SAT/ACT again if necessary; complete amateurism and academic questions in your NCAA eligibility profile; after graduation, ask your high school counselor to submit your proof of graduation and the final copy of your high school transcript to the NCAA eligibility center.
The most important thing you should do is keep in contact with your counselor on a regular basis so you know where you stand at all times. With continuous communication, you’ll know that you’re doing everything you need to do to make sure you’re on track to accomplish your goals. You should also note that in the next few years, the requirement for taking the SAT/ACT may be eliminated, so you’ll still have to do well in your core classes and GPA, especially if the combined score option goes away with the extinction of those standardized college entry exams.
In addition to all of this, there are a few other things you need to do. For starters, you’ll need to take 10 of your 16 core classes by the end of your junior year, or before your seventh semester. Seven of those 10 courses need to be in math, English, or physical or natural science. Also, for these seven courses, you cannot retake any of the classes just to receive a better grade. The grades for these courses are therefore locked into your final official transcript, which will impact your core course GPA (and can’t be removed or improved). Therefore, if you are an underclassmen in high school who’s an aspiring future collegiate athlete, yet you’re struggling with certain tests or academic subjects, it’s well worth exploring a tutor or test prep service or class to ensure you start your academic career off on the right foot even from your freshman year of high school.
What About After High School?
Once you graduate from high school and meet all of the NCAA’s requirements, you’ll need to request a final amateurism certification from the NCAA Eligibility Center. Afterwards, they’ll review your account and assign you an Account Status. The status for these prospective student-athletes can include Final Qualifier, which means you are ready to be offered a scholarship; Early Academic Qualifier, which you can attain after six semesters of high school; and Academic Redshirt, which means you practice with the team and receive a scholarship but you are unable to play in official games.
Before you start your first year of college, you should check with the compliance office at that college to make sure your status is confirmed. The last thing you want to do is start your college career and discover you don’t have the status you thought you did. And not to sound like a broken record, but you have to keep in mind that checking with your division requirements is a must because Division I and II requirements are a little bit different.
If you’re in Division III, you’ll have to check with the school you’ve decided to attend because in this division, each college is responsible for its own requirements for their student athletes. Their requirements might be similar to those in the first two divisions, but they certainly won’t be exactly alike. You also get five years to compete athletically in four seasons, so there is the possibility of staying on for an extra year if you get injured or for some reason have to pause your athletic involvement for a season and resume the following year
Other Things to Know
Even though these are the basics for qualifying as a student athlete with the NCAA, you’ll likely still have questions. The good news is, the NCAA website and your guidance counselor are both great sources of information, which should make it a little less confusing for you. Keep track of your credit hours, especially in your core classes, and any application or registration deadline so that you don’t miss anything important.
Also, if you aren’t sure which division you’ll be playing for but you still want to proceed with the requirements so you can eventually play, you can still sign up for free for a profile page on the NCAA website. Later on when you decide on the division and the school, you can always transition to a Certification Account so that you’re eligible and all set. The NCAA site can provide you with tons of details on the entire process, and even though it’s a good idea to start planning in your freshman year of high school, you won’t have to be familiar with every rule and regulation just to be successful in the end. At the end of the day, it all comes down to working hard to exceed the academic standards (and surpass NCAA core course requirements), following NCAA eligibility requirements for recruitment activities, and excelling at your sport as a college-bound student athlete that will largely determine your future in higher education and collegiate sports.
