Seminar Addresses Eligibility Questions

Those planning to play college sports picked up some eligibility tips last week at an NCAA eligibility seminar in Anaheim. The seminar, given by Jennifer Heppel of the NCAA and Calvin Simons of American College Testing, covered what happens when a prospective student-athlete registers with the Initial Eligibility Clearinghouse.

As many as 120,000 high school athletes are expected to register with the clearinghouse this year, more than double the number in any year since the clearinghouse was begun in 1994.

Simons said he believes the jump in clearinghouse registrations, is due to high school freshmen and sophomores attempting to get an unnecessary jump on the competition. He said students should not register until the end of their junior year.

Some other information of note:

* Transcripts often arrive with clerical mistakes such as incorrect grade or course numbers. Simons and Heppel suggested that students review transcripts for errors with a counselor before the school forwards them.

* An athlete doesn’t have to sign a letter of intent to be eligible for an athletic scholarship. Signing the scholarship offer that must accompany the letter of intent is sufficient. The letter of intent is used to bind an athlete to a specific college.

* The clearinghouse will assign the lowest passing grade awarded by a high school in which a pass/fail grading system is used. So a student doing “A” work in a pass/fail course is likely to be assigned a “D” grade by the clearinghouse.

* Summer school classes taken after graduation will not be counted toward eligibility by the clearinghouse.

The NCAA has a brochure that provides information on eligibility and recruiting. Call (800) 638-3731.