National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

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Apr 29, 2010 4:03:29 PM

The Division I Board of Directors supported most of the recommendations from the Football Academic Working Group, including a new rule that would require football student-athletes to earn nine academic credits in the fall term to be eligible for the entire season the following fall.

The presidents wanted to send a strong message that they support the plan, and intend to introduce the legislation into the 2010-11 cycle in August.

The working group proposed the credit-hour legislation on the basis of data revealing eligibility problems among football players. The plan calls for student-athletes who fail to earn nine credits to miss four contests the next fall, with the opportunity to regain two of the games back if they earn a total of 27 credit hours by the end of the following summer session.

Data show that student-athletes – regardless of class – who achieve nine credit hours in the fall semester are much more likely to be academically eligible at the end of the spring term.

The change would put football student-athletes on track to graduate in 4 ½ years instead of the traditional five-year path and could help avoid another problem in football, which is that a high number of football student-athletes leave school ineligible after exhausting their eligibility.

The Committee on Academic Performance, which discussed the recommendations earlier this week, indicated some concerns about how the rule applies to quarter schools and also the impact it might have on third-year football student-athletes who have an opportunity to turn professional. While the presidents acknowledged those concerns and indicated they will listen to any proposed changes at their August meeting, the Board viewed such concerns as details that can be worked out in the intervening period.

In addition to the eligibility rule, the report from the football group recommended that CAP eliminate waivers of the contemporaneous penalty for Football Bowl Subdivision student-athletes who leave school academically ineligible (0-for-2) after exhausting their athletics eligibility. The Board agreed that eliminating those waivers provides incentive for student-athletes and institutions to better manage retention and eligibility issues for players who have exhausted their eligibility.

The Board also adopted the working group's recommendation that further study be given to both the time demands on football student-athletes and the requirements for two-year college transfer student-athletes.

One recommendation that was not adopted was the development of the Academic Progress Rate portfolio for influential personnel other than the head coach. The head coach APR portfolio will launch this summer for coaches in several sports, including football. The presidents have discussed the idea of expanding the portfolio concept to other groups, including presidents, but have declined to pursue it in the past. The presidents noted several problems with the idea, including the fact that no institution-wide APR is currently calculated. The APR was designed as a team-based metric and was not meant to be applied to an entire athletics department.

The Board wants to avoid a lengthy legislative process that has held up similar recommendations aimed at improving the academic performance of men's basketball student-athletes. The Board expects to take up the men's basketball issues in August as well.

In other business, the Board endorsed the recommendations for new Division I membership standards. The recommendations include:

• A four-year reclassification process with election to active membership in the fifth year.
• Institutions must be active members of Division II for at least five years before beginning the reclassification process to become a Division I institution.
• Reclassifying institutions must meet Division I requirements upon beginning the process to become Division I members.
• An application fee (the amount to be determined by either the estimated annual average value of direct benefits through distributions and championships or the median annual value of direct benefits through distributions and championships).
• All potential Division I members must have a bona fide offer of membership in a Division I conference before beginning the reclassification process.

The recommendations will be drafted as legislative proposals, and the Board will introduce them into the 2010-11 legislative cycle. New standards should be in place when the moratorium on new Division I members expires in August 2011.

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