The changes will require athletes to achieve better grades in more of their high school core classes. Continued eligibility in college will be based on increased requirements for grade point averages and completed credit hours.
"In the past I think we've looked at these issues separately," said Percy Bates, who heads the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Management Council. "We're calling this a seamless model -- that is, they really fit together."
But some officials worry that a stipulation in the proposal that gives eligibility to incoming freshmen with lower SAT scores and higher GPAs will work against the board's intended goal.
"The lowering of the requirement of SAT scores makes NCAA eligibility open to a larger group of people," said business Professor John Evans, who represents UNC on the Management Council.
If eligibility is easier for first-year students and tougher during the following years, then schools can, at best, only maintain graduation rates because less qualified students will be held to tougher standards further down the road, said John Blanchard, director of UNC's Academic Support Program for Student Athletes.
But Bates said the tougher requirements for returning athletes will ensure freshmen who could have been admitted on high grades from substandard high school courses will be dealt with. "This system will take care of that," Bates said. "It will catch those that are unprepared."
Studies submitted to the board show the best indicators of college athletes' first-year academic success are their grades in high school core classes, said board Chairman Robert Hemenway in a telephone conference Thursday night. "That does place a responsibility on high schools," he said.
Bates said the academically focused requirements also will make recruiting easier for coaches. "Coaches won't have to guess who'll make it through."
Previous statutes for incoming freshmen operated on a sliding scale -- higher grades could account for lower test scores, and high scores could compensate for lower GPAs. Athletes could become eligible with an SAT score of 820 as long as they had a minimum GPA of 2.5.
