NCAA 1 6198

SoCalHoops Recruiting News Report

NCAA Considers Lowering Eligibility
Requirements; Agrees ADA Applies--(June 1, 1998)

According to reports published for the last several days at CNN/SI, ESPN, by AP, and several other independent media outlets, the NCAA is exploring the possibility of lowering the minimum standardized test score athletes must achieve to be eligible to play as freshmen.

The NCAA currently determines freshman eligibility by using a sliding scale based on a student's score on either the SAT or ACT tests and high school GPA in 13 ''core courses.'' The minimum required test score is 820 on the SAT and 68 on the ACT and the minimum GPA is 2.5. Students scoring less on the test must have a higher GPA (or vice versa) to achieve freshman eligibility.

NCAA President Cedric Dempsey said in a statement last Wednesday that he supports eliminating the current standardized test score cutoff. Dempsey said data shows that students not initially eligible ''are equally successful'' in college as those who are.

The use of the standardized test as an equal variable with a high school grade-point average has long concerned African-American coaches, who say the tests are culturally biased. Two athletes from Philadelphia have sued the NCAA, charging the requirements violate civil rights laws. ''The tests were never intended to be used as a means to determine athletic eligibility,'' Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson told CNN/SI. ''It's not being used correctly, but the NCAA ignored that. Now that you've got people filing suits and putting on pressure, they're paying attention to it. Individual assessment has got to have some role. This is a legitimate first step, but unfortunately, it comes down to people taking folks to court.''

But some in college sports question the timing and say too many students already have missed opportunities.

Syracuse chancellor Kenneth Shaw, chairman of the NCAA Division I board of directors, said the suit is a not a factor. ''To the NCAA's credit, they've studied this,'' Shaw said. ''They've hired qualified people to look at the data, so it stands to reason to bring the issue up.'' Shaw suggests a system could be considered in which the test score is not automatically weighed equally with the GPA.

''If there's a way to get around the SAT bias,'' said Black Coaches Association President Alex Wood, the football coach at James Madison, ''we would have open arms to that. But even if all these things are turned around, who do all those kids who missed out on opportunities see about getting their education?''

Many people believe that the academic standards for incoming student-athletes are already too low as it is without doing away with the standardized testing and eligibility standards. But the NCAA, probably sensing that they will lose the lawsuits, and being sensitive to the claims of cultural bias which is allegedly inherent in standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT, will most likely lower the standards even further. Is this a good thing? We don't know.

In a related issue (which had it been resolved last year might have had direct bearing on last year's Schea Cotton eligibility issue) the NCAA and the U.S. Department of Justice have announced an agreement related to initial- and continuing-eligibility standards for student-athletes with learning disabilities.

In the consent decree, the Justice Department noted that the "NCAA has engaged in good-faith negotiations with the United States in seeking to resolve this matter." The decree document also notes that both parties acknowledge that the NCAA does not admit liability under the Americans With Disabilities Act and does not waive its position that it is not a place of public accommodation and that Title III of the ADA therefore does not apply to it. But in the end, the NCAA's position would have proven too costly to defend.