The NCAA News - News and Features

February 23, 1998

II Academic Requirements Committee reviews initial eligibility

The Division II Academic Requirements Committee spent the majority of its February 10-11 meeting in Hilton Head, South Carolina, discussing recently published data regarding initial eligibility.

The committee reviewed a report from the NCAA research staff that indicated differences among ethnic and income groups in eligibility rates for freshmen at NCAA Division I institutions.

The research staff also presented the committee with similar initial-eligibility data from Division II institutions and noted that this is the first time in several years that such data had been assembled.

The committee reviewed the data and asked the research staff to collect additional information as part of the committee's continual review of initial-eligibility standards. The committee emphasized that while it was not seeking to make changes in those standards, it nonetheless desired access to as much information as possible should future data indicate that changes are warranted.

The committee also heard a presentation from the U.S. Office of Civil Rights regarding English as a second language and the possibility that such courses qualify as core courses in meeting initial-eligibility requirements. Although the committee took no action, it agreed to discuss the request further at a future meeting.

In other actions, the committee reviewed three pieces of proposed legislation from Division II conferences regarding initial eligibility and two-year college transfers.