The NCAA Eligibility Center

When it comes to athletic recruiting and trying to receive an athletic scholarship, there are a lot of things for a student-athlete and his/her parents to think about. They have to come up with a recruiting plan, record highlight tapes and put in the effort to get in front of a college coach. One thing that is often overlooked is the fact that all NCAA student athletes must register with the Eligibility Center before they can receive an scholarship or play college sports for an NCAA school.

Athleticscholarships.net put together a page that informs you of some key things that you need to know when it comes to the NCAA Eligibility Center:

5 Quick Facts About the NCAA Eligibility Center

• 180,000 student athletes register with the NCAA each year, only 42% of those athletes (76,000) are recruited by a DI or DII universities
  
• The NCAA receives over 500,000 pieces of mail and 180,000 phone calls each year
  
• Registering with the NCAA does not help you get discovered or recruited by college coaches
  
• You should only register with the NCAA Eligibility Center if you are currently being recruited by DI or DII coaches
  

There are new eligibility requirements for athletes graduating in 2016 or later, 15% of athlete who meet the current academic standards would not be eligible under the new eligibility requirements (40% of basketball players and 35% of football players would not be eligible)

NCAA Eligibility Requirements

Your academic eligibility is determined using a combination of your high school graduation, GPA from your core courses and your SAT or ACT test scores.

• You must graduate from high school
  
• You must meet the minimum GPA in your core courses
  
• You must meet the minimum requirements on your SAT or ACT test scores.
  
• Your GPA and SAT/ACT test scores must combine to meet the minimum requirements laid out on the sliding scale
  

For complete NCAA academic eligibility requirements go here

New NCAA Eligibility Rules for Class of 2016

The NCAA has raised the minimum GPA you need in your core courses from 2.0 to 2.3.

On the NCAA sliding scale (combining your GPA and SAT or ACT scores) you will need to score approximately .5 higher on your GPA for the same test scores. For example, if you scored 700 on the SAT (math and reading only) under the old rules you would need a GPA of 2.8. With the new rules you will need a minimum GPA of 3.25 in order to play as a freshman (if you have a 2.8 or above, you can still receive a scholarship but will not be eligible to play your freshman year and this will greatly reduce your scholarship opportunities).

The new rules require that 10 of your 16 core course be completed before your senior year of high school and that you will not be allowed to retake any of those classes for a higher score. This is extremely important because for many athletes do not think about their eligibility until their junior year of high school and for many it will be too late to make up the core courses they need.

It is absolutely critical talk to you high school councilor and coach to make sure you are on track to be eligible. The NCAA does not help athletes become eligible, this needs to be done by you and your high councilors.

It's extremely important to get familiar with the Eligibility Center. You are already busy enough with classes and athletics. Make sure you register as soon as possible so you don't have to worry about it later.