National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

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Jun 23, 2010 8:32:06 AM

When the Division I Board of Directors meets in August, the presidents are expected to introduce legislation that would codify recommendations from the NCAA's Football Academic Working Group, including a plan that would require all football players to earn nine credit hours in the fall term to be eligible for the entire football season the next year.

The nine credit-hour requirement is the most far-reaching recommendation from the group that included administrators, coaches, faculty, conference commissioners and other stakeholders. The group was chaired by Oklahoma Athletics Director Joe Castiglione.

The legislation could receive its first official vote as soon as January. Former NCAA President Myles Brand, who created the working group in 2008, charged members to devise research-based strategies for graduating more football players.

The group's recommendations, which received strong support from the Board earlier this year, came from findings that include:

• Academic Progress Rate problems in football can be attributed more to eligibility than retention.
• Incoming freshmen in football have lower high school academic profiles than prospects in most other Division I sports, and their first-year performance is the worst of any sport.
• More Football Bowl Subdivision student-athletes enroll in summer school than Football Championship Subdivision student-athletes.
• Time demands are more intense for football student-athletes (even though they miss less class time) than for student-athletes in other sports.
• Once Football Bowl Subdivision players exhaust eligibility, they are more likely to drop out while ineligible. Football Championship Subdivision players are most vulnerable to dropping out ineligible after their first year of eligibility.

To address these issues, the working group wants to require football student-athletes in both subdivisions to earn at least nine credit hours every fall term or be suspended for four games the next fall. Student-athletes who fail to earn the nine credit hours in the fall can earn back the opportunity to participate in two games if they earn 27 credit hours by the end of the summer session.

"Our recommendations are data-driven," Castiglione said. "We all have a lot of opinions, but the data provided to the group compelled us to use it in our planning, our process and our strategy."

Evolution of the proposal

The final numbers that appear in the recommendations – including how many credit hours should be earned in the fall, how many would have to be earned to have the penalty mitigated and what the penalty should be – were often in flux over the two years of the group's work.

Ultimately, data showed that getting football student-athletes on a path to graduation in four-and-a-half years would provide the best foundation for success. By requiring football student-athletes to earn 27 credits per academic year, football student-athletes go from a five-year graduation plan to one that would earn them a degree in four-and-a-half years. Such a shift addresses football players who exhaust their eligibility in the fall term and, with only a semester's worth of credits to earn before graduation, simply drop out.

The group made the penalty less than a full season – and provided the opportunity for mitigation – because members did not want the entire focus to be on the penalty. The group wanted to emphasize academic success and academic progress.

Even some of the group members had to be convinced of the merits of the proposal. Rob Ash, football coach at Montana State, said he originally believed the current NCAA eligibility rules were sufficient.

"I was opposed to the nine-hour rule because there might be unintended consequences," he said. "But the one thing that we kept coming back to was the NCAA research. There is a much greater chance for graduation for any football student-athlete if he gets nine hours every fall instead of six. If you look at that research, it's hard to say this isn't a good target."

The playing-time penalty will matter to both coaches and players, Ash said. Initially, the group considered prohibiting spring practice for athletes who failed to meet the academic requirements, but eventually the group focused on the four-game suspension. Spring practice was essential, Ash said, to help the football student-athlete stay connected to his team and have something to work toward while he fixes academic issues.

"I've found in my career that when I have to discipline someone, the language that talks the most is playing time, so that's a valid place to start," Ash said. "It's a good recommendation. It supports the research."

Criticisms

The recommendations have received some criticism since Castiglione began presenting to various governance bodies, associations and at the NCAA Convention in January.

The plan caused some Football Championship Subdivision members to question its feasibility for institutions that compete at that level. Many don't have the resources to provide summer school for all of the football players who might need it.

Southland Conference Commissioner Tom Burnett pointed to data saying that most of the problems in the FCS occur after a student-athlete's freshman year. He's worried about implications for FCS student-athletes who don't meet the new minimum if their school doesn't have the resources to help him "get well."

"My concern is if a student-athlete is faced with the possibility of a four-game suspension next season, what happens to him?" he said. "Will FCS schools be able to manage that student-athlete and help him prepare? I don't know that."

Ash described a recruiting conundrum faced by many FCS coaches, who cite research showing that two-year college transfers and high school prospects with at-risk academic credentials are more likely to cost a team APR points.

"The research says that a low academic record in high school is a key predictor (of poor performance), so the answer is just don't recruit those guys. That's unrealistic when you look at the competitive reality," Ash said. "A player who is Division I caliber who has great grades, that guy is probably going to an FBS school. Sometimes at the FCS level, the best available talent might have lower grades. Sometimes we have to take chances."

The Committee on Academic Performance also had issues with some of the recommendations, including that the nine-hour credit requirement might push more third-year student-athletes to go pro before they otherwise would. There also was concern about how the plan would apply at quarter schools.

The Committee on Academic Performance also did not favor another recommendation that would no longer exempt aid of Football Bowl Subdivision football players who drop out ineligible after exhausting their eligibility when penalties are assessed to a team that fails to meet APR benchmarks. CAP members are concerned that some continuing student-athlete aid would be reduced under such a scenario.

Castiglione said his group takes the concerns seriously and will work with other groups to reach a solution.

"It's important for people to realize we want to get this right," he said. "Sometimes, when people hear recommendations for new pieces of legislation, they are quick to find fault or criticize. Sometimes the criticism is valid."

To that end, Castiglione will work with Committee on Academic Performance and the Academic Cabinet to address concerns at a joint meeting later this month.

Goal is graduation

The goal of the group is to implement a strategy that will push more football players toward graduation. While the latest Academic Progress Rate numbers are rising – predicting an eventual increase in graduation rates – the football rates are still lower than almost all other sports. Rhonda Hatcher, the faculty athletics representative at TCU, serves on both the football group and the Academic Cabinet. She has reviewed the data in detail.

"There's still a lot of room for improvement," she said. "If this credit increase has the effect of modifying the behavior of kids in the first semester, and in the end we see more kids graduate, it's worth it."

The move to graduation in four-and-a-half years will positively affect the APR, said Ash. He cited incidents on his own team where a student finished his playing career and tries to go pro or simply isn't motivated to continue in school without playing football. Many are close to graduation, but just don't finish, he said.

"The goal of APR is graduation. That's the bottom line," Ash said. "We want guys to make it from one semester to the next, but we also want them to make it to graduation."

Next steps

After the issues raised by Committee on Academic Performance and the Academic Cabinet are addressed later this summer (along with any other questions raised by the membership), Castiglione will present a final report to the Board of Directors in August. He expects the Board will introduce the recommendations into the 2010-11 legislative cycle. The new standards could be in place as soon as August 2011.