Student Athletes

NCAA Rules and Compliance:

1. The NCAA Manual is nearly 500 pages long and there is a rule governing just about everything. One chapter is devoted strictly to the recrui ng of high school students or as the NCAA de nes them: Prospects.

2. A student becomes a prospect when they start classes for the 9th grade. A student becomes a recruited prospect when a college either provides him/her with an o cial visit or places more than one telephone call to the prospect or family or when a coach visits the prospect or his/her family anywhere other than on the college campus.

3. An o cial visit is when a college invites a senior prospect to campus for a paid visit. A prospec ve student-athlete may take a maximum of ve expense-paid visits to Division I ins tu ons, with not more than one permi ed to any single ins tu on. A senior prospect is only allowed ve o cial visits, so a highly recruited prospect will need to be selec ve and make informa ve choices. This restric on applies regardless of the number of sports in which the prospec ve student-athlete is involved.

4. Some coaches will request transcripts and test scores in advance to determine a prospect’s academic record. At mes, the overall academic record might make a coach “back o ” a student and not invite him/her to come to campus if he/she does not appear to have the grades to become a quali er or meet admission standards.

5. Any prospect (9th-12th grade) may take as many uno cial visits as they like. This is when the prospect pays his/her way to campus for a visit.

6. Each sport has di erent recrui ng calendars, which places restric ons on when they may or may not visit with a prospect face to face. Football and basketball are the most restric ve. There are mes when football and basketball coaches may come to the high school to meet with the counselors and/or athle c director or coach, but may not have any contact with the prospect.

7. College coaches can generally meet with prospects at the high school any me, but can only do it three mes during the school year.

8. Only core courses are used in the calcula on of the grade point average for the NCAA. Be sure to look at SJCS’s list of NCAA approved core courses on the NCAA’s Eligibility Center Website to make certain that the courses you are taking, or are planning to take, have been approved as core courses.

9. The best thing for everyone involved in the recrui ng process is educa on. If a prospect and parents become educated with the rules and ask ques ons, they will be in control and can sort through all of the informa on presented to them from di erent coaches.

10. A great resource is the Guide to the College-Bound Student-Athlete. This book summarizes the rules and regula ons in an easy-to-read format. It includes guidelines rela ng to recrui ng, eligibility, nancial aid and college freshman eligibility requirements for Divisions I and II. A printable version of the guide can be found by visi ng the NCAA website at www.ncaa.org.

NAIA Eligibility:

Several years ago the NAIA began registering high school students for NAIA eligibility. To play NAIA sports, every student must be registered with the NAIA Eligibility Center. Please visit www.PlayNAIA.org to learn more.

One important factor to remember is that every single one of the athletes who play compe ve intercollegiate athle cs must be admi ed!