The NCAA News - News Features

New research report analyzes two years of clearinghouse data

A new series of research reports from the NCAA examines the data collected by the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse (IEC) in the first two years of its operation.

The first of the reports describes the data that have been collected and the characteristics of the student-athletes who make up the IEC databases.

Beginning in the fall of 1994, all student-athletes who wanted to compete in intercollegiate athletics at NCAA Divisions I or II institutions were required to be certified by the clearinghouse as having met NCAA initial-eligibility standards. The data collected in that effort provide the NCAA with a substantial resource in its attempts to analyze the effects of this legislation.

The series of reports represents the first of those analyses.

The initial report reviews data within six groupings of clearinghouse data. The groupings are:

1. Overall: The total set of applications to the IEC.

2. Final Certification: The second grouping is the subset of the first group including only student-athletes with a final clearinghouse certification. The reduction from Group No. 1 to Group No. 2 is relatively small, as it represents only the fact that the student-athletes completed the necessary paperwork for the clearinghouse.

3. Division I or II IRL: The third grouping is the subset of the second group including only those student-athletes who have appeared on at least one Institutional Request List (IRL).

4. Division I IRL: The fourth grouping is the subset of the third group including only student-athletes who have appeared on the IRL for at least one Division I institution. This is an important grouping because it may reflect the first observable form of the recruiting pool of Division I student-athletes.

5. Division I Final IRL: The fifth grouping is the subset of the fourth group including only student-athletes who have appeared on the final IRL for at least one Division I school. These are the student-athletes whom the Division I school is willing to evaluate for a final time, and this may represent all student-athletes the school expects on its squad lists for NCAA sports.

6. Division I Final IRL and Eligible: The final grouping is the subset of the fifth group including only student-athletes who have appeared on the final IRL for at least one Division I school and have been certified as eligible by the clearinghouse.

The analysis of the number of individuals in each of these groups between the two years yields several interesting findings.

Most notably, there was a dramatic increase in overall applications from 1994 (68,461) to 1995 (104,306). However, because of the finite number of spots available for participation, Groups No. 5 and 6 are almost identical in the two years. In both years, there is a dramatic cut in the number of student-athletes between Groups No. 2 and 3. This indicates that a large number of student-athletes who apply to the clearinghouse never appear on institutional request lists.

The data show that, in both years, both grades and test scores for prospective student-athletes are well above the national averages for 1994 and 1995. However, these are "optimal" rather than the more typical "average" scores and are likely to be inflated to some undetermined degree. There are also strong increasing trends in high-school academic performance as the groups move up the hierarchy that was outlined previously. That is, students in Group No. 6 have higher test scores and core grade-point averages on the average than do students in Group No. 1. Those increasing trends may reflect (a) changes in student academic preparation, and/or (b) changes in the way those students are being selected by colleges.

Another interesting finding relates to the number of core courses taken by student-athletes in 1994 vs. 1995. The 1995 group, at all levels of selection, had taken a greater number of core courses than their counterparts in 1994. For example, the overall group in 1994 averaged 15.8 core courses taken, while the 1995 group averaged 16.4. That could be due to the implementation of the 13-core-course standard in 1995. The 1994 student-athletes were required to complete only 11 core courses.

The increase in core-course standards also seemed to have an effect on the number of students declared ineligible in 1995. The data show that, in the overall group of students, 7.2 percent were ineligible under NCAA initial-eligibility standards in 1994, and 15.2 percent were ineligible in 1995. Of the group on which Division I institutions requested final certification (Group No. 5), 2.7 percent were ineligible in 1994 and 4.6 percent in 1995. The increases in the percent ineligible were seen mainly in the core grade-point average standard (1 percent in 1994, 1.6 percent in 1995), or in student-athletes who lacked the requisite number of core courses (0.6 percent in 1994, 1.7 percent in 1995).

Individuals interested in obtaining a copy of the full study may contact the research staff at the national office.