The NCAA News - News and Features

June 23, 1997

Legislative assistance

1997 Column No 25

Council actions
Cross country starting date

NCAA Divisions I and II institutions should note that during its April 14-15, 1997, meeting, the NCAA Council adopted noncontroversial legislation to amend Bylaw 17.8.3.1-(a) (first date of competition) to specify that the first permissible date of competition in cross country be September 1 or the preceding Friday if September 1 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday. This amendment is effective immediately and applies to the 1997 cross country season.

Academic requirements issues

NCAA Divisions I and II institutions should note that during its April 14-15, 1997, meeting, the NCAA Council took the following actions (all of which are effective immediately):

1. Pass-Fail Courses. The Council agreed to modify the wording of 1997 Convention Proposal No. 90 (pass-fail grades) to permit the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse to assign the lowest passing grade the high school would assign for a pass/fail course as opposed to the lowest passing grade for any course at that high school.

2. Early Admissions Program Waiver. The Council agreed to modify the wording of 1997 Convention Proposal No. 93 (initial eligibility -- early admissions program waiver) to indicate that in order to receive a waiver of the initial-eligibility requirements pursuant to an early admissions program waiver, the only core-course requirement a student may lack is the fourth year of English (Division I only).

3. Freshman Eligibility Standards -- Automatic Waiver (Division I Only). The Council agreed to approve "automatic" waivers in cases in which a student's overall academic records clearly demonstrate that a waiver of the standards is warranted. These waivers would be granted before the student receives a "not certified" decision from the clearinghouse. Additionally, the processing of these cases will be handled by the NCAA staff on behalf of the NCAA Division I Initial-Eligibility Waiver Committee without member institutions submitting formal waiver requests. The following criteria were adopted as standards for these automatic waivers:

a. The student is deficient in one unit or less in the core-course area of English only;

b. The student presents an overall grade-point average of at least 3.300 in the core curriculum; and

c. The student scores in the 70th percentile on the verbal subscore of the SAT (approximately 560) or on the English subscore on the ACT (approximately 22).

4. Weighted Grades. The Council approved an interpretation that the clearinghouse may weight only those courses specifically designated as honors or advanced courses, even if a high school applies a weighted grade scale to other college preparatory courses to compute the quality points awarded in those courses and the cumulative grade-point average. In order for additional quality points to be awarded for honors or advanced courses, the grade conversion must be made on the student's transcript and in no instance would an honors or an advanced course be permitted to receive greater than a 0.5 additional quality-point value (e.g., A = 4.5) for purposes of calculating the grade-point average for initial eligibility.

5. Core Course Removed from 48H Form. The Council reversed a previously approved interpretation to indicate now that a student is entitled to utilize a course for purposes of satisfying the initial-eligibility requirements if the course was listed as an acceptable core course on the high school's 48H confirmation form at the time the student took the course. Therefore, if the status of a course changes from acceptable to not acceptable subsequent to the student taking the course, the student would be entitled to use that course for purposes of meeting initial-eligibility requirements. In such situations, the clearinghouse will notify the high school that for subsequent students, the course would not be considered acceptable for meeting the initial-eligibility requirements.

This material was provided by the legislative services staff as an aid to member institutions. If an institution has a question or comment regarding this column, such correspondence should be directed to Richard C. Perko, legislative assistant, at the NCAA national office. This information is available on the Collegiate Sports Network.