New Rules Apply for Old College Try

Joe Filson, a guidance counselor at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, thought he knew just about every registration form and trick of the trade to help students get into four-year colleges.

Then last spring, his son John, a lineman on Anaheim Loara High’s football team, received offers to play college football. The Filsons quickly discovered they had a lot to learn.

Like so many student-athletes, parents and even school counselors who consider themselves informed, the Filsons became aware that playing sports in college these days isn’t simply a case of showing up and strapping on the helmet.

The lengthy eligibility process can be a labyrinth of NCAA regulations and individual college entry requirements that sometimes conflict with each other.

The process involves specific course requirements, core classes, qualifying test scores and, for those who desire to play Division I or II, registering with the Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse--which has the final, sometimes painful, word as to whether a student-athlete will play major college sports at all.

Slip up along the way and the chance of a lifetime may be lost.

“It was a time-consuming process. There’s a real learning curve,” Joe Filson said. “If you’re a parent that has had two or three kids that, perhaps, have gone through this process already, you can gradually learn. But for a new parent, going through this can be bewildering.”

John Filson eventually chose to play at Claremont-Mudd, a Division III school, because he liked the idea of attending a small college, but not before he hired a professional service to help guide him through the paperwork. These services, which have cropped up in the last 10 years or so, typically charge $300-$1,500 to promote and guide prospective college athletes.

But what if you can’t afford that for a shot at your dream? Do your homework and don’t wait to get started, experts say.

“You have to start thinking about this no later than your sophomore year in high school,” said Jim Wachenheim, a former assistant football coach in charge of recruiting at the University of San Diego. He’s also a representative of the Online Scouting Network, a company that provides help to prospective college athletes. “Way too many kids wait until the summer of their senior year [to plan for college].”

In a nutshell, to be eligible to play sports in college as a freshman, the NCAA requires the student be a high school graduate, have a grade-point average no lower than 2.0 on a 4.0 scale, a passing score on either the SAT or ACT, and passing grades in at least 13 “core” academic classes, such as math, science and English.

The necessary score on the SAT or ACT depends on the student’s grade-point average. Someone with the minimum 2.0 GPA would need a minimum score of 1,010 on the combined verbal and math sections of the SAT, or a minimum 86 combined score on the four-part ACT. Whereas someone with a 2.5 or better GPA would need only an 820 on the SAT or a 68 on the ACT.

It is recommended that the tests be taken as early as possible after July 1 of what will be a student’s junior year, and he should continue to take the tests to improve his score, or at least until he gets an acceptable score, said John Dempsey, a regional director for College Prospects of America. His company, for a fee, will help a prospective athlete look for scholarships as well as obtain and process the necessary forms and applications.

According an NCAA student handbook, students can take the SAT as often as they want and submit their best score on each section--verbal and math--no matter when they achieved it.

Different colleges have different entry requirements, and students should learn what those are.

No later than the fall of their senior year in high school, students must register with the Clearinghouse if they intend to play at the Division I or II level. For a one-time fee of $18, the Clearinghouse is supposed to collect records of the students’ academic standing and forward that information to colleges where students have applied.

Begun four years ago and operated by a private company contracted by the NCAA, the clearinghouse has been criticized for slow and sometimes inept processing.

In perhaps its most famous case last spring, the clearinghouse invalidated the SAT scores of former Santa Ana Mater Dei basketball player Schea Cotton, who planned to attend UCLA, ruling that Cotton had improperly received special accommodations each of the three times he took the test. Cotton subsequently enrolled at St. Thomas More, a prep school in Oakdale, Conn.

According to Tustin Athletic Director Al Rosmino, who has guided star running back DeShaun Foster through recruiting paperwork, the definition and content of the 13 NCAA-required core classes isn’t specific.

“I don’t think the clearinghouse has been as expedient as most at the NCAA thought it would be,” Rosmino said. “It’s a big hang-up for a lot of kids. Some colleges aren’t getting the right information and they eventually come back to the high school athletic director to get what they need to help a kid be eligible.”

Bob Oliver, NCAA director of membership services, said the NCAA is working with American College Testing of Iowa City, Iowa, which runs the Clearinghouse to iron the bugs out.

“We grossly underestimated the amount of work involved in this process,” Oliver said. “The purpose was to gather information and then render a decision [on eligibility]. It wasn’t supposed to be an agency that would have to review the courses that the high schools were submitting. “

Oliver said the NCAA is about to publish more streamlined definitions of what the NCAA will count as a core class and will send that to 24,000 high schools around the country. The NCAA has established a toll-free, automated telephone number (1-800-638-3731) for individuals to monitor their own processing, he said.

Student-athletes should not expect their coaches or high school counselors to know everything, experts say. Typically, coaches are as ill-prepared as most parents to tackle NCAA rules and regulations. And school counselors handle several hundred students, each with different needs.

Brande suggests students know their options, then regularly visit their high school counselors. They may have information on additional scholarships available to athletes who plan to walk on or are receiving partial scholarships, or what additional entrance requirements are needed at a particular school.

Also, Division III and National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletic (NAIA) schools have their own rules, and many of them have even more strict entrance requirements than many NCAA Division I and II institutions.

The NCAA also publishes a Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete, which is free and usually available in high school guidance or counseling offices, or by contacting the NCAA directly. The guide provides information from core-class and grade-point average requirements to test-taking and rules about recruiting trips.

“Bottom line, take care of yourself,” Dempsey said. “If you are capable of going to college, you should be able to figure all this out by yourself.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

If You Want to Play . . .

Here’s what prospective student-athletes must do in order to practice, compete and receive athletic scholarships as college freshmen:

* Register with the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse ($18 one-time fee).

* Graduate from high school.

* Have a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 2.0 (on a 4.0 scale) in 13 core academic courses.

* Achieve a passing score on the ACT or SAT. The minimum test score needed is based on a sliding scale linking the prospective athlete’s GPA with the test score needed to be declared eligible. An athlete with a 2.000 GPA would need a minimum of 1,010 on the SAT or an 86 on the ACT. An athlete with a 2.500 GPA or higher needs a minimum 820 on the SAT or 68 on the ACT.*

Core Courses

* At least four years of English

* At least two years of math (including algebra and geometry)

* At least two years of social science

* At least two years of natural or physical science, including one lab course, if offered by any high school the athlete attended

* At least one year additional courses in English, math or natural or physical science

* Two additional academic courses in any of the above areas, or foreign language, computer science, philosophy or comparative religion

NOTE: A partial qualifier who has passed required core classes, graduated from high school and has a minimum 2.525 GPA and minimum test scores on the SAT of 810 or ACT of 67 may receive institutional aide, such as a scholarship, but is not eligible to play as a freshman and will have three remaining seasons left, unless obtaining a baccalaureate degree, whereby a fourth year of competition could be granted.

* More information: Call 1-800-638-3731 for a free guide to NCAA rules.

* The highest scores on the verbal and mathematics section of the SAT or highest scores on the four individual tests of the ACT may be combined to achieve the highest scores.

SOURCE: NCAA