Choose a current policy area from the following within the context of intercollegiate athletics: eligibility; amateurism; substance abuse and perform

Many areas within intercollegiate athletics require the development of policy to ensure fairness. Countless policy areas are debated in college athletics regardless of division or affiliation. The sheer numbers of individuals involved with this industry segment and the issues evolving from the unique sport environment require a problem-solving, action-oriented culture. The focus on developing new policies and amending the old policies helps administrators effectively manage the evolving, dynamic environment of intercollegiate athletics. Let’s investigate some recurring and new governance policy areas facing collegiate athletics today.

Eligibility

Eligibility defines who is allowed to play. In the early days of college sport, concerns arose when an individual not affiliated in any way with the college emerged as the star of the team. If collegiate athletics is about representing one’s particular institution, it follows that the members of the team must also be students at the college. Eligibility, then, is the global term used to define the rules for entering, in-progress, and transferring student-athletes.

Initial Eligibility

To be eligible to compete in intercollegiate athletics, a high school graduate must possess the required grades in a set of core courses acceptable to the college or university for entrance. The NCAA uses an external body called the NCAA Eligibility Center to process student-athlete eligibility to enforce common standards related to academics and amateurism (NCAA, 2022b). Students register with the Eligibility Center (normally during their junior year of high school) by submitting high school transcripts and standardized test scores (such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test [SAT] or American College Test [ACT]). The Eligibility Center then approves an application when an institution requests information about a particular student. Currently, the NCAA Divisions I and II require 16 core courses to be completed satisfactorily along with a minimum standardized test score defined in conjunction with grade point average (GPA). Division I uses a sliding scale of GPA, SAT, and ACT scores to identify minimum standards of initial eligibility. The minimum GPA for student-athletes to compete at the Division I level is 2.3 (NCAA, 2022b) and 2.2 at Division II (NCAA, 2022e). In Division II, according to the Full Qualifier Sliding Scale, for example, a minimum SAT score of 920 or a sum score of 70 on the ACT is required to compete on an athletic team with a 2.2 GPA (NCAA, 2022e). Division III schools set their own eligibility criteria (NCAA, 2022b).

The NAIA (2021) requires two of the following three items for eligibility: (1) a minimum 2.0 GPA (on a 4.0 scale), (2) graduation in the upper half of the high school graduating class, and (3) a minimum score of 18 on the ACT or 970 on the SAT. Students who gain admission to a college but have scores below these NCAA or NAIA standards are ineligible to compete for their first full year of attendance (two semesters, three quarters, or the equivalent).

Both the NAIA and the NCAA temporarily changed their requirements for initial eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it restrictions for taking tests such as the ACT and SAT. For example, the NAIA allowed first-year students to meet the initial eligibility requirements through the 2.0 GPA requirement alone (NAIA, 2022b). Similarly, the NCAA dropped the standardized testing requirement through at least the 2023–24 academic year (NCAA, 2022j).

Academic Progress

To maintain eligibility, student-athletes must take and achieve passing grades for a specific number of courses or maintain a specific GPA.

In the NCAA, student-athletes must demonstrate steady progress toward graduation. They must be (a) pursuing full-time study, (b) in good standing, and (c) making satisfactory progress toward a degree. In addition, NCAA Division I member institutions must be accountable for the academic success of their student-athletes, and each Division I sports team receives an APR score. Essentially, the APR is conceived as a team-based metric developed to track, manage, and enforce accountability for academic achievement by NCAA athletes. One retention point is allotted to each scholarship athlete for staying in school and one eligibility point is given to an athlete for being academically eligible. The points are added together for each team, divided by the number of points possible, and multiplied by 1,000, yielding the team’s APR score. For instance, an APR of 950 means that the student-athletes on the respective team have earned 95% of the points possible (NCAA, 2018a). In addition to an annual APR, the NCAA also tracks schools’ four-year APRs. According to NCAA data released in 2022, the average four-year APR (tracking the 2017–18 through 2020–21 academic years) was 984 – a one-point increase from the previous report (NCAA, 2022h).

WWW

NCAA Eligibility Center

https://web3.ncaa.org/ecwr3/

While teams with high APRs receive public recognition from the NCAA, teams that score below 930 can be sanctioned, for example, by receiving reductions in scholarships or losing postseason access (NCAA, 2022d). For the 2020–21 academic year, 21 teams at 13 schools were penalized for not meeting the NCAA’s minimum APR threshold (with additional schools facing penalties for not meeting APR minimum scores set by their institution or conference) (Heath, 2022). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA suspended APR penalties and public recognition awards through the Spring 2023 competition season. The APR is a data-driven initiative indicative of the NCAA trend toward utilizing available data in implementing legislation reforms.

Transfer Students

Rules regarding transfer students are an important aspect of intercollegiate athletics’ eligibility policy. Transfers to institutions for the sole purpose of playing intercollegiate athletics used to be discouraged because such moves contradict the philosophy of student first, athlete second. The purpose of attending a college or university is to get an education, earn a degree, and become a contributing member of society. For that reason, intercollegiate athletics traditionally required that student-athletes, especially those from revenue-producing sports such as basketball and football, sit out for one year before being eligible to compete for their new school. In an attempt to modernize its rules, however, the NCAA Division I Council adopted a one-time transfer blanket policy in 2021 allowing athletes across all sports to transfer once without being required to sit out their first year. To make it easier for student-athletes to find a new school should they choose to transfer, the NCAA launched the Transfer Portal in 2018. Student-athletes can post notices of their intent to transfer here, and administrators and coaches at NCAA member institutions can search for players to recruit. Of course, a series of related policies determine when and how student-athletes can communicate with other schools