Compromise Proposed on NCAA Eligibility : Colleges: Knight Commission wants to raise requirements, but it also makes exceptions. John Thompson says, “The issue is poor people.”

A commission on intercollegiate athletics endorsed a plan Tuesday that would raise basic academic eligibility requirements for college-bound athletes but would allow some exceptions.

Responding to complaints from African-American coaches, the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics advocated a plan that would allow some students who do not meet basic scholastic requirements to receive scholarships and practice--but not to play with the team--as freshmen.

Many black coaches have argued that the new academic standards are unfair, pointing to studies showing that students from poorer families do not perform as well on the standard tests used to determine whether a high school student is eligible for college athletics.

The Knight Commission is an independent group of 21 academic, business and athletic leaders, including 14 present or former university or college chief executives. The plan the panel endorsed is a compromise between NCAA standards adopted in the mid-1980s and new requirements scheduled to take effect in August.

Under existing rules, prospective college athletes must score at least 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test or 17 on the American College Test and have a 2.0 grade-point average--a C--in 11 core high school courses.

The new rules, approved at last year’s NCAA convention, would toughen standards and provide a sliding scale for eligibility.

For instance, a student scoring 700 on the SAT or 17 on the ACT would need a high school grade-point average of 2.5 or better in 13 core courses. If test scores were 900 on the SAT or a 21 on the ACT, the student would need a grade-point average of only 2.0 in the core courses.

The compromise plan, which has the support of many NCAA officials, would maintain the new requirements but would make exceptions.

For example, students who have grade-point averages of at least 2.5 but who did not achieve the minimum 700 SAT or 17 ACT scores could accept scholarships and practice with a team as freshmen. They could not play until the following year, however, and then only if their college grades met NCAA requirements. They would be permitted to participate in athletics only for three years.

The plan, which goes before the NCAA for approval in January, was offered in response to studies showing that the standard tests give an advantage to students from higher-income families.

Knight Commission members defended their decision to endorse the higher standards.

“The Knight Commission has unbounded faith that all young athletes, including African-American athletes, will rise to meet the challenge of higher standards in the same way they have met challenges on the field,” said Father Theodore Hesburgh, commission co-chairman and president emeritus of Notre Dame.

The commission also issued a statement stressing that it believes in the integrity of standard test scores, noting that there are more black student-athletes than ever before.

“SAT (or ACT) test scores are more effective than high school grade-point averages in predicting graduation rates for student athletes,” the statement said. “However, the best predictor for both African-American and white students is a combination of the two.”

Some college coaches were disturbed by the statement, saying that the issue is far more complicated than simply “raising the bar” on test scores.

“These so-called high standards have eliminated more well-qualified people than they are letting in,” said John Thompson, basketball coach at Georgetown. “The issue is not black people. The issue is poor people, of which black people happen to be an awful lot.”

Black Coaches Assn. executive director Rudy Washington, basketball coach at Drake University, had no comment on the Knight Commission’s statement.