1. Understanding NCAA Eligibility
Session on Initial NCAA Eligibility
Legacy High School
Presented by Counselor Tim Rowe, Dwane Martinson

2. Student-Athlete
Millions of students display impressive athletic talent at the high school level …
What separates the students who play at the high school level and those who play at the collegiate level, is in most cases related to academic performance.
You must be a Student- if you want to be an Athlete at the college or university level.

3. Student-Athlete
Athletic scholarships are viewed as an investment by colleges and universities.
Students who perform well in the classroom are not deemed a risk to be ineligible during athletic competition.
Colleges rarely take risks (offer scholarships) to athletes who they view as an academic risk.

4. Initial-Eligibility
The NCAA Eligibility Center is responsible for determining the eligibility of every prospective student-athlete in NCAA Divisions I and II using the following two prongs:
Academic Certification: Does the student meet the legislated minimum academic requirements?
Amateurism Certification: Has the student competed professionally in their sport?

5. Initial Eligibility Overview
Academic Requirements

6. Eligibility Overview: Academics
NCAA Division I -Academic Requirements (Entering in 2016 and beyond)
In order to compete as a freshman, an athlete must:
Graduate from high school; and
Earn at least a 2.3 GPA in a prescribed distribution of 16 core courses; and
Earn a combined SAT score of at least 1080 (Critical Reading + Math) or an ACT sum score of at least 93
NCAA Division 1 requires 10 core courses to be completed prior to the seventh semester.

7. Eligibility Overview: Academics
NCAA Division II -Academic Requirements
In order to compete as a freshman, an athlete must:
Graduate from high school; and
Earn at least a beginning August 1, 2018, in a prescribed distribution of 16 core courses; and
Earn a combined SAT score of at least 820 (Critical Reading + Math) or an ACT sum score of at least 68.
No sliding scale for Division II

8. Eligibility Overview: Academics
Division I
16 Core Courses
4 years English
3 years Math (Algebra I or higher)
2 years Natural/Physical Science ( 1 year of lab if offered by high school)
1 years additional English, Math or Natural/Physical Science
2 years Social Science
4 years additional courses (from any area above, world language or nondoctrinal religion)
Many schools want 2 years of a world language and may possibly have more or fewer requirements for admission than the NCAA Clearing House

9. Eligibility Overview: Academics
Division II
16 Core Courses
3 years English
2 years Math (Algebra I or higher)
2 years Natural/Physical Science ( 1 year of lab if offered by high school)
3 years additional English, Math or Natural/Physical Science
2 years Social Science
4 years additional courses (from any area above, world language or nondoctrinal religion)
Many schools want 2 years of a world language and may possibly have more or fewer requirements for admission than the NCAA Clearing House

10. NAIA Academic Requirements
An entering freshmen student must meet two of the three entry level requirements:
A. Achieve a minimum score of 18 on the ACT or 860 on the SAT. The SAT score of 860 must be achieved on the critical reading and math sections of the exam only.
B. Achieve a minimum overall high school grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale.
C. Graduate in the upper half of the student’s high school graduating class. This is interpreted to mean the class ranking listed on the student’s final transcript. High Schools that do not rank may elect to certify the student final class ranking.

11. Initial Eligibility Overview
Amateurism Requirements

12. Amateurism: Red Flags! Receiving money for participating in athletics.
Signing a contract with a professional team.
Receiving prize money above actual and necessary expenses.
Playing with professional athletes.
Trying out, practicing or competing with a professional team.
Receiving benefits from an agent or prospective agent.
Agreeing to be represented by an agent.

13. NCAA Recruiting Overview
A Grade Level Look at Recruiting

14. Recruiting Process- Freshman
•Determine with your parents and coaches, which path of study is best to meet your goals both academically and athletically
• Start off high school with strong grades. There will be less pressure if you don’t need to earn top grades as a senior to meet eligibility requirements (stack the deck in your favor).
• Practice for and take the ACT/SAT utilizing the many different resources available for test preparation. Use the Eligibility Center code 9999 as a score recipient
• Begin to investigate areas of future interest (ie. what would I major in or pursue as a career). Not every college athlete turns pro and even the pros should have a degree.

15. Recruiting Process- Sophomores
• Continue to work hard in the classroom. Honors and AP coursework is a great way to raise your GPA and show you are capable of handling rigorous coursework.
• Continue working with different resources to improve your ACT/SAT scores. Here at Legacy you will take the PSAT. The PSAT is great practice for the SAT. Results can be linked to kahnacademy.org to help improve on academic deficit areas.
• Maintain a “clean” behavioral record at your school. More programs are looking into the discipline records of potential scholarship athletes.

16. Recruiting Process- Juniors
• Register with the NCAA Eligibility Center: This step must be completed to make an official visit during your Senior year. Speak with athletic director or school counselor for more information regarding the process. Be aware of the Amateurism Rule.
• College Placement Tests: You will take the ACT here at Legacy during this school year. Take the ACT and/or SAT in the winter or as many times as you like. You may take multiple tests and use the highest score for admissions entrance. ACT fee waivers are available for students receiving ‘free or reduced lunch’ at school.
• First Contact Date (by phone): June 15th following the completion of the students junior year, is the first contact allowed by an NCAA college coach and the player for recruitment. However, recruiting materials can be sent by a team earlier in September 1st of junior year.

17. Recruiting Process- Juniors
•Entrance Requirements: Become familiar with the entrance requirements of different college level options. Are you looking at Division I, Division II, JUCO, or NAIA?
• Junior College: Some student turn to the Junior College route to start their college education. HS Diploma or GED is required
• State 4-Year Schools: Must have graduated from HS with minimum 2.0 GPA and qualifying ACT or SAT score.
• Private 4-Year Schools: Typically want higher GPA and test scores than public universities (want to make sure that you can ‘make it’ as a student at their institution and remain athletically eligible). Higher GPA and ACT/SAT score may be combined with Academic Scholarships.

18. Recruiting Process- Seniors
• College Match/ Financial and Social: Can you afford the financing needed to complete the 4+ years? There are very few full rides (typically only in football or basketball), though there are ways to stack scholarships to trim college costs down.

19. NCAA Eligibility Overview
Completing your registration online

20. NCAA Home Page

21. NCAA Task Bar

22. Starting the Process Introducing Yourself to Coaches
-Set yourself apart and get in contact with the coaches you may want to play for. can be a quick way to reach out to coaches, but taking the time to send written letters may get you noticed as well.
Guidelines for Letters and s
-Get your name out there. Contact at least one coach each week. Build relationships with multiple coaches

23. Essentials for Every Letter or Email
A personalized salutation including the coach’s name. Never start with, “To Whom it May Concern.”
Your basic information including your high school, the position that you play, or events that you compete in.
Include some of your important athletic stats as well as academic stats like your GPA and placement test scores.

24. Essentials Continued..….
Tell the coach of any club sports or camps that you’re participating in.
Include any recognition you’ve received like all-conference honors, MVP mentions, and academic awards
Link to your athletic profile. Give the coach an option to find out more about you.
Don’t forget your contact information.

25. What you can do now…
• Review your high school transcript with your school counselor. If you have attended multiple schools- it is the family’s responsibility to make sure core classes have been approved by the NCAA Eligibility Center.
• If you play for a club team be sure to get your coaches contact information to provide on your ‘athletic questionnaire’. This is a great opportunity to increase your visibility for collegiate recruiting and gain exposure to high level athletic competition.
• Sometimes your club coach has contacts at the college level to assist you in finding the right athletic fit at the college level.

26. What you can do now….

27. What you can do now… TAKE SOCIAL MEDIA SERIOUSLY!
"Never let a 140 character tweet cost you a $140,000 scholarship”. - Marymount University Coach Brandon Chambers
Red Flags for coaches regarding social media
Criminal or drug-related anything vulgar
Inappropriate language, partying pictures
Being on social media too much (how many posts/tweets a day)
Insensitive or sexist remarks/pictures or Cyber- bullying

28. Getting yourself recruited…

29. Getting yourself recruited…

30. Getting yourself recruited…

31. Getting yourself recruited…

32. NCAA Eligibility? NCAA/ Athletic Recruiting?
Questions
NCAA Eligibility?
NCAA/ Athletic Recruiting?
For NCAA Eligibility info
Visit my
LegacyHigh.net
Quick questions:
Call Ext. 4307 Or
You can schedule an appointment by calling the Counseling Ext 4300