ACADEMIC ELIGIBILITY 101

High school athletic directors and counselors play a vital role in preparing students for college academically. Below is an overview of the academic eligibility process to help guide student-athletes and ensure they are ready for college sports.

What Does Academic Eligibility Mean?

Academic eligibility is the status that determines whether a student will be able to practice and compete in varsity sports at the collegiate level – and is typically determined using some combination of a student-athlete’s SAT/ACT test scores, high school coursework, GPA, and in some cases class rank.

What is the NCAA Eligibility Center?

The NCAA Eligibility Center (EC) is responsible for determining the academic eligibility and amateurism status for all Division I and Division II student-athletes. The EC is responsible for holding students and universities accountable to the by laws created by the NCAA DI/DII higher ed member institutions, which is why initial eligibility rules for these divisions are different.

Initial Eligibility is based on high school academic progress and completion; and dictates whether or not a student can participate in NCAA DI/DII athletics or if they can take an athletic scholarship. Previously, this part of the NCAA was called the NCAA Clearinghouse.

NCAA Eligibility Center (EC) includes:

200,000 college-bound student-athlete accounts annually
100,000 Certification accounts
8,000 international students
20,000 high school calls
1,100 member schools and universities
32,000 high schools, with 29,200+ cleared

College-bound student-athletes who want to play NCAA sports at a DI or DII school need to register with the NCAA Eligibility Center at eligibilitycenter.org. Students planning to compete at the NCAA DI or DII level should complete a certification account by the end of their sophomore year. For undecided students, they can sign up for an “undecided” account at no charge to receive their NCAA Identification number.

What is Needed to be Academically Eligible for NCAA?

For the NCAA, academic eligibility is typically determined using a combination of a student-athletes SAT/ACT test scores, high school coursework and their GPA as calculated using what are called the “NCAA Core Courses.”

The minimum GPA needed to be eligible for Division I sports is a 2.3 NCAA core GPA and a 980 SAT or 75 ACT sum score. At the Division II level, a 2.2 GPA is needed, with a 920 SAT or 70 ACT sum score in order to be eligible.

There are no NCAA course requirements for NCAA Division III eligibility as you must simply meet the admissions standards for the institution you wish to attend to compete with full eligibility in accordance with the NCAA academic requirements.

What are NCAA core courses and how do they count towards academic eligibility?

Most high schools in the U.S. have a list of approved core courses by the NCAA. These approved courses allow the NCAA to evaluate an athlete’s eligibility based on their academic classwork and grades. The NCAA requires core courses to:

Be a four-year college preparatory course in one of these subject areas:
- English
- Math (Algebra I or higher)
- Natural/physical science
- Social science
- Foreign language
- Comparative religion or philosophy.
Be taught at or above your high school’s regular academic level.
Receive credit toward high school graduation and appear on an official transcript with course title, grade and credit awarded.

Core courses must additionally be on each school’s NCAA-approved core course list. Only courses that appear on a high school’s list of NCAA core courses will count toward the 16 core course requirement.

It’s important to know that not all high school classes that count towards high school graduation will count as NCAA core courses. Schools submit course names through the NCAA High School Portal and receive one of three responses:

Approved By Title Alone
Denied
Additional Information Needed (meaning detailed documentation is required to receive approval)

What are the Academic Eligibility Requirements for NAIA?

Prospective student-athletes looking to continue their athletic and academic pursuits at a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school have different eligibility standards they must meet from those we’ve outlined in the NCAA academic requirements.

Not only must they graduate from an accredited high school and be accepted as a regular student in good standing at a NAIA institution, but the student-athletes must also meet two of the three requirements outlined below to earn NAIA academic eligibility:

Student-athletes must meet the test score requirement, which is a minimum score of 18 on the ACT or 860 on the SAT. Only critical reading and math sections are considered on the SAT.
They must graduate from high school with at least a 2.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale. The accepts the GPA calculation your high school provides.
Student-athletes must graduate in the top 50 percent of their high school class.
- If the school does not have class rank, students must meet both the GPA and SAT/ACT requirements.

What are the Academic Requirements for Junior Colleges?

Governed by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), junior colleges or JUCOs are what many people refer to as “community colleges” – and their academic eligibility for JUCOs differs from NCAA and NAIA in several key respects.

For one, whereas the NCAA’s division-based eligibility requirements are consistent across member schools, JUCOs are allowed to set their own standards. Typically, these standards are easier to meet than those of the NCAA/NAIA, and students who fall short are sometimes offered special classes to meet the necessary qualifications post-enrollment.

What Makes a Student-athlete Ineligible?

If a student-athlete does not meet the minimum academic requirements set out by the NCAA, NAIA or NJCAA – they will not be able to take an athletic scholarship, compete or practice.

Best Practices for Schools

High school athletic directors and counselors are heavily involved in assisting college-bound student-athletes with the academic eligibility process. Maintaining your school’s NCAA and NAIA accounts to ensure they are accurate and up to date is extremely important. Both conferences allow for only two contacts at each school to be listed as the primary and secondary contacts on the NCAA Eligibility Center High School Portals.

Maintain your school’s list of NCAA-approved core courses to ensure it is accurate and up-to-date.
- It is recommended that you update your NCAA list of core courses and grade scale annually after your school determines new course offerings, but before you begin registering students for courses.
- Ensure that any non-traditional programs (ESL/ELL, credit recovery, virtual or online courses, etc.) offered at your school have been reviewed.
- Submit documentation for courses that have been marked RC8 – requires additional documentation to be approved for NCAA credit.
- Validate student transcripts and registration fee waivers for eligibility review and account creation via the High School Portal.
Respond to NCAA requests for more information from the NCAA Eligibility Center as needed.
Respond to NCAA alerts regarding specific student eligibility concerns.
Be familiar with information on students with documented education impacting disabilities, which can be found on the NCAA High School Portal.
Continue to emphasize the importance of academic performance at every step of the student’s high school career – starting in 9th grade, it all counts!
Develop a method to best identify student-athletes and their interest in college athletics.

Role of the Student-athlete

It is the responsibility of the student-athlete to understand the academic requirements and make sure they are on track to meet those requirements with the help of their high school guidance counselor and athletic director in addition to school administrators.

Steps include planning strategically and proactively ahead, taking the proper high school classes and taking them seriously and protecting their amateur status.

As the industry leading on-demand academic compliance solution, Honest Game technology helps educators ensure their schools and student-athletes are tracking with NCAA & NAIA requirements for college athletics.

Find out how Honest Game takes the guesswork out of academic eligibility for college sports.

Contact us today to learn more about how our technology can prepare your student-athletes to be eligible and ensure you are updated with the NCAA/NAIA compliance within your athletic department.