Changes in NCAA Eligibility Too Late for Some : Academics: NCAA approves stricter guidelines for athletic scholarships and freshman eligibility beginning in August.

Andre Miller of Verbum Dei High had all the right basketball moves. The 6-3 guard could dribble with either hand, drive to the basket or pull up to hit a jump shot from three-point range.

Miller also scored high marks in the classroom, carrying a 3.0 grade-point average through high school, a 3.8 in his senior year.

Miller, however, fell short in college entrance exam scores.

He failed to attain at least 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, now known as the Scholastic Assessment Test, and like many former high school stars he was ineligible to receive an athletic scholarship and play basketball as a collegiate freshman.

Miller, a freshman at Utah, lost one year of eligibility and must wait until next season to receive an athletic scholarship and to play with the team.

Had Miller been a high school senior during the 1996-97 school year, he would be eligible to receive a scholarship and practice, but not play with the team as a freshman under NCAA rules revised last week.

“The poor kid is a victim of timing and not legitimate policy,” said Mike Kearney, Verbum Dei basketball coach.

This past Monday, delegates to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s 89th annual convention in San Diego affirmed stricter academic requirements for freshman eligibility and will continue to use standardized test scores, coupled with grade-point averages in 13 college preparatory courses, to determine scholarship qualification.

The action comes three years after the NCAA first adopted tougher academic requirements, known as Proposition 16, hoping to put them into effect beginning Aug. 1, 1995.

But controversy over standardized college entrance tests such as SAT and the American College Testing exam (ACT), highlighted by a threatened boycott by black basketball coaches a year ago, forced a review of the eligibility rules.

As a concession to critics who call standardized tests racially biased, the NCAA voted to liberalize cutoff levels on SAT and ACT to accommodate “partial qualifiers” such as Miller.

In order to be classified as a partial-qualifier, an athlete must have at least a 2.75 GPA and score a 600 on the SAT (15 on the ACT).

Under the new guidelines, starting Aug. 1, 1996, high school athletes can qualify for an athletic scholarship at one of the 302 Division I schools by compiling at least:

* a 2.0 GPA (on a 4.0 grading scale) in 13 college prep classes and a score of at least 900 on the SAT (21 on the ACT);

* a 2.5 grade-point average and a 700 on the SAT (17 on the ACT).

Critics, however, still contend that standardized tests are not a fair measure of a student’s abilities to do well in college.

“I’ve never thought the SAT was a good indicator of how someone would do in college,” said Kearney, who has a law degree from George Mason University in Virginia. “There are a lot of factors involved other than race. I think colleges use the SAT because it is easier to choose students; instead of learning about particular people, you look at a number and dismiss applicants based on their test scores.

“If college presidents are concerned about how well athletes are going to do in college, they should place more emphasis on their academic achievements.”

NCAA officials say the 1996 start date for stricter entrance examination minimums will give high school athletes time to prepare.

“There was considerable confusion over what was expected,” said Cedric Dempsey, NCAA executive director. “(The extra year) should help.”

In the meantime--and in response to critics who think the NCAA is dropping the ball academically--Monday’s vote tightened requirements for 1995-96 high school seniors, who must maintain a 2.0 grade-point average, but in two more core classes (13 instead of 11).

Judith Albino, chairwoman of the NCAA’s Presidents Commission, said: “We’ve taken a big step--an important step--in college athletics.”

USC President Steven Sample, a proponent of tougher academic eligibility requirements, is among those who are unhappy with the NCAA’s decision to push back the start date.

“There was no compelling reason to delay it,” he said. “Everybody had plenty of time to prepare for it. Even a delay of one year just sends out the wrong message to high schools.

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Even with the extra year to prepare, many local high school coaches believe that is not enough time to adjust to the new policy.

“The NCAA is changing rules so fast that by the time coaches get students ready for one set of rules, they change the rules again and we have to tell the next group of kids something different,” said Paul Knox, Dorsey football coach. “You have to do a little bit more than last year.”

And the extra year won’t help Miller or players like him.

Although he excelled in the high school classroom, Miller’s success did not translate to the SAT, where he scored in the high 600s. He was accepted to the University of Utah and is sitting out his freshman season.

Utah Coach Rick Majerus unsuccessfully appealed to the NCAA to give Miller his freshman eligibility on the basis that he had above a 3.0 GPA in high school.

Because the new rules have not taken effect, Miller can receive only non-athletic financial aid.

“No one wanted it more or worked harder than Andre,” said Kearney, who teaches English at Verbum Dei.

Opponents of stricter standards also were hoping to win a fourth year of eligibility for partial qualifiers.

But the NCAA sent a strong signal by refusing to grant the extra year.

“It would indeed signal a lower standard,” North Carolina Chancellor Paul Hardin told the delegates. “The first coach that gets to a high school recruit and tells him not to worry about the SAT because he can still play four years will set the norm. It would be a signal that we are backtracking (from academic integrity).”

Thomas Hearn, president of Wake Forest, also was against giving a fourth year of eligibility for players in Miller’s situation. He likened it to a redshirt year, which in effect would be an advantage to coaches.

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“It would arrange a way for athletes to become meaner, stronger and bigger for a year before starting to play,” Hearn said.

Sample believes the new rules will force high school educators to do a better job preparing athletes for college studies.

“It’s a question of whether you are looking at a few students or a majority of minority students,” Sample said. “There are 1.6 million students in Los Angeles County. I look at Prop. 16 as good for them. We as Americans don’t have much to be proud of when looking at elementary and secondary schools. We are not doing the job as in Japan or Europe.

“Establishing these standards has high consequences in the school system, and that’s the best thing for students, be they white, Latino or African American.”

Said North Carolina’s Hardin: “We ought not to confuse access with athletic eligibility.”

Sample’s comments frustrate Knox and other Central City coaches and school administrators who have grown tired of NCAA making decisions that they say have an adverse affect on their students.

“I wish people making these decisions would welcome some input from high school administrators, coaches and guidance counselors,” Knox said. “If nothing else, they can get a realistic picture of what’s going on at the high school level.

“There is this perception that if you raise standards, students will set higher goals and will automatically perform better. That’s not always true.

“Of course you want to push your students to excel at the highest rate. But when you raise standards, you eliminate quite a few young men and women who might be academic late bloomers. . . . Students who might otherwise go to college and be quite successful.”

Current prospective scholarship athletes are required to maintain at least a 2.0 GPA in 11 core classes: four years of English, two years of mathematics (algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics), two years of natural or physical science, two years of social science and an additional class in either foreign language, computer science or philosophy.

“My opinion is that the standards are fine as they are set now,” City Commissioner Barbara Fiege said. “It’s pretty tough already.”

Times Staff Writer Elliott Almond contributed to this story.