For Some, NCAA Requirements Are Still a Difficult Proposition : Prop. 48: Rule has increased academic awareness, but there have been victims, too.

Three years after the inception of Proposition 48, nobody is quite sure what to make of it.

Prop. 48 is the common reference to a change in National Collegiate Athletic Assn. bylaws that imposed academic eligibility requirements on incoming freshman athletes. Many San Diego high school coaches agree the basic premise is good but also hesitate to give it unconditional approval because of unsolved problems and unanswered questions.

An NCAA spokesman said research still shows no clear trend with regard to Prop. 48. In 1986, 88% of schools surveyed reported that 599 high school athletes failed to meet requirements and were declared ineligible for their freshman seasons. In 1987, only 72% of member schools surveyed responded (457 ineligible) and only 71% responded in 1988 (562 ineligible).

If nothing more tangible, Prop. 48 has encouraged those associated with high school athletics to become aware of the importance of a structured academic curriculum for student-athletes. There are indications everywhere that the education system is flawed. (Dexter Manley, a defensive end for the Washington Redskins, publicly admitted last spring he was a functional illiterate when playing for Oklahoma State.)

“I think there has been a general increase throughout the state, throughout the nation for that matter, of awareness that the standards probably weren’t high enough,” said Ed Burke, San Dieguito’s football coach. “People who might have been sliding by in high school now realize there are courses they have to take and aptitudes they have to show to be able to compete.”

In the past, Burke said, coaches contributed to the general lack of awareness. It was common knowledge that a good athlete could get a college scholarship as long as he had a high school diploma, so coaches found ways to steer players away from difficult classes.

“That’s a crime perhaps a lot of us were committing toward the athlete years ago,” Burke said. “I don’t think it was intentional, but it was there. If they could dunk a basketball or throw a football, they were going to get in.”

Said Brad Griffith, Mira Mesa’s football coach: “The coaches created a problem for themselves in not making the kids go to class. There were an awful lot of them who didn’t care if the kid went to class or not.”

School administrators and coaches say they are now taking appropriate measures to remedy the problem. Some such as Jim Wilson, Bonita Vista’s football coach, are using an informal approach: He often requires his athletes to come to his classroom during lunch and do their homework under his supervision.

Other schools are asking parents to come to school the day the student makes out his schedule. Herb Meyer, the El Camino football coach, said school counselors are given football rosters, and an athlete’s parents are notified if he comes in to drop a core class.

Eric Robinson is not the product of a system that didn’t work but rather of a system that was not improved in time to be of benefit to him. He was last year’s quarterback at El Camino, heavily recruited by UCLA, and based on his football achievements should have been on a full-ride scholarship this year.

But because he didn’t score the minimum 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, he is attending Fullerton Community College instead. He wasn’t made aware of the things you have to do academically to qualify for a scholarship.

Meyer said: “If we had started this screening process three or four years ago, when (Robinson) was a young kid, he would have been better prepared by the time he was taking those tests.”

Meyer said many high school athletes are short-sighted and take simple classes to maintain the 2.0 GPA they need to stay eligible. At the end of their high school careers, they find that they haven’t accumulated enough core classes to meet Prop. 48 requirements.

Junior Seau, a former Oceanside High School star who now plays at USC, was one who had his life put on hold. He was ineligible his freshman year because of Prop. 48, and it has left him with a sour taste. Now a junior, Seau is playing as if he never missed a minute. In his first season as a starter, he has 36 tackles, seven sacks, 10 pass deflections and an interception.

But Seau is still somewhat bitter, and he doesn’t agree that Prop. 48 serves the best interests of the athletes.

“It really hurts a lot of people,” said Seau, who was declared ineligible because of low SAT scores. “It really points people out. I was devastated with the whole situation. Sitting out a year really hurt me. It really distracted me.”

Seau’s criticisms are expanded by Vic Player, Lincoln’s football coach, who questions whether Prop. 48 is equitable for minority athletes. Seau is Samoan.

“I see it as discriminatory,” Player said. “That’s my first reaction. I believe (the SAT) test is culturally and racially biased.

“It’s white, middle class ethics and values. They ask you specific facts. Those are assumed that you know just by being a white, middle class American.”

Griffith wonders how much good it does to keep an athlete out of college, even if scholastic handicaps indicate they aren’t qualified.

“You hate to see a kid not get into college,” he said. “You look at it this way. Is the kid going to be better off if he’s going to be in a college environment? Or do you just say, ‘Hit the road and you can’t play’?”

But many athletes aren’t ready for a four-year college after their senior year in high school, and some never will be.

Helix Coach Jim Arnaiz said he has had students delared ineligible under Prop. 48 who “couldn’t have passed chemistry if I gave them the test. They’re great kids, they have great character, and they’ll be great citizens, but they have some limitations academically.”

All things considered, Player isn’t entirely opposed to Prop. 48.

“If you look at the long range effect of it, it’s made my athletes a lot more cognizant of academics,” he said. “It’s also making them take solid classes.”

It is the stigma attached to Prop. 48 that bothers Seau the most.

“It makes people stand out,” he said, “and they have Prop. 48 over their heads for the rest of their lives.”

Prop. 48 foreclosed on Collis Hunt’s plans to accept a football scholarship to Weber State in 1988, and before he knew it, he was shuffling around Mesa Community College, and nobody had the faintest idea who he was.

“I walked around, and I kind of expected people to know,” said Hunt, who started on both offense and defense in 1987 for Patrick Henry High School and now plays tight end for Mesa. “And I kept walking and walking. In high school, you walk around and everybody knows you. Once I got to Mesa, I walked around and nobody cared.”

It was a far cry Patrick Henry, where Hunt was all-league his junior and senior seasons and had more than his share of girlfriends. Classmates would come up to him and say: “I’m going to see you on television next year.”

Every week, there were newspaper clippings. He saved them and put them on the wall of his room. They’re still there, but there aren’t many recent ones. And he has never been on television. Community college football doesn’t stimulate the same fan enthusiasm as high school football, and Hunt only sees his name in the paper occasionally.

Hunt scored 890 on the SAT, but his 1.9 grade-point average in core courses chased away recruiters and put him on the Prop. 48 list. So he was forced to change plans. Prop. 48 snuck up on him unexpectedly, but he blames nobody but himself. Not the school. Not the NCAA. Not the recruiters.

“I got pretty lazy during my last couple of years,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to put the blame on anybody else. You should go (to counselors) and see what you have to do to get a scholarship.”

All things considered, Hunt doesn’t think Prop. 48 snuffed out his career plans. He might not ever play Division I college football, but he has come to realize there are other things in life besides sports. In the long run, Prop. 48 probably did him a good turn.

“It’s definitely taught me a lot of things,” he said. “I study all the time now.”

BACKGROUND Proposition 48, initiated in 1986 as NCAA Bylaw 5-1-(j), requires athletes participating in Division I sports to have scored at least 700 points out of a possible 1,600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test or a 15 of a possible 36 on the American College Test and have a minimum grade-point average of 2.0 in 11 high school core curriculum courses. Athletes failing to meet these standards are not eligible during their freshman year and may not receive financial aid during it.