NCAA should ratify proposal

On Oct. 22, the NCAA Division I Management Council made “sweeping” changes to student-athlete academic standards by passing a proposal that will put more emphasis on the classroom rather than the playing field.

The new standards eliminate the “cut” score on the standardized test requirements, such as the SAT and ACT, and places more importance on high school GPA and the number of credits taken during an athlete’s collegiate career. If the NCAA Board of Directors truly works for the student-athlete, it will pass this proposal in its Thursday meeting.

The new proposal dismisses the required 820 SAT score for eligibility so the student-athlete can rely on his or her classroom work and not on a test score that cannot judge the true intelligence of a person. The requirements also focus on the core classes — English, math, science, etc. — but also raise the number of those classes from 13 to 14.

Along with the eligibility reform comes college graduation reform. This new proposal would require a certain amount of credit hours to be completed by the student-athlete each semester to be eligible for the current year.

According to the proposal, the student-athlete must complete 24 semester hours of academic credit before he or she enters his or her second year of collegiate enrollment. The proposal also requires the student-athlete to have 90 percent of the minimum GPA necessary to graduate by his or her second year, 95 percent by the third and 100 percent by the fourth year of eligibility.

While some might say these new requirements seem tough, they’re a step in the right direction to ensure the student-athlete graduation rate increases from the dismal level it’s at now. The NCAA Board of Directors needs to head in this direction by ratifying the academic reform proposal Oct. 31.

University Wire – Indiana State University