The Division I Committee on Academics, which met Oct. 20-21 in Indianapolis, is forwarding to the Division I Council a pair of proposals aimed at giving student-athletes more flexibility to pursue academic interests.
The Council is the only Division I governance body that can introduce proposals in the 2016-17 legislative process.
One of the proposals would grant some relief from progress-toward-degree requirements for students who pursue cooperative educational work experiences such as internships, practicums, student-teaching and studying abroad. The second proposal would allow credits earned toward a minor to satisfy credit-hour requirements.
The recommendations are the first to emerge from a long-term conversation aimed at helping college athletes pursue academic opportunities beyond traditional course requirements. Several other governance groups, including the Division I Student-Athlete Experience Committee and Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, are examining the issue and are expected to forward additional concepts in the future.
“The Committee on Academics wants to help student-athletes take advantage of opportunities that will prepare them for life after college,” said Ohio University President Roderick J. McDavis, chair of the Committee on Academics. “These changes will assist students as they pursue excellence in both academics and athletics.”
The first concept would allow students who participate in cooperative educational work experiences flexibility in earning the required 18 semester or 27 quarter hours of academic credit during the previous two regular semesters or three regular quarters. Some limits would be imposed, including that the student must be recognized by the school as full time; must complete the experience successfully; and must have met the progress-toward-degree requirements for previous terms.
The recommended change would allow students to participate in academic experiences to prepare them for success after college without jeopardizing their athletics opportunities or timely attainment of an undergraduate degree.
The second concept would change NCAA rules to allow credit hours earned toward a voluntary or optional minor to be used to satisfy credit-hour requirements. Current rules require students to account for these credits within the student's free elective space of their designated degree program. Students who compete in Division I athletics would still be required to meet other academic benchmarks to ensure they are on track to graduate in five years.
The deadline for proposals to be introduced into the 2015-16 cycle was Sept. 1, so the Council will consider whether to introduce both proposals into the 2016-17 legislative cycle. If the Council agrees to put the proposals into the cycle, votes will be cast in April 2017. If adopted, the new rules would be effective Aug. 1, 2017.
The committee continued a review of rules that could impact student-athlete participation in academic opportunities, as requested by the Division I Board of Directors.
In other business, the committee would like to make permanent a temporary review process the national office staff has been using since January 2014 to scrutinize academic waiver requests.
The committee will ask the Council to codify the process originally approved by the Leadership Council, a predecessor to the Council. The temporary review process gave staff flexibility and the ability to exercise reasonable discretion when evaluating requests to waive NCAA rules.
Specifically, staff has the temporary ability to consider specific kinds of mitigating factors when reviewing waiver requests. The process also allowed additional flexibility when the rules or guidelines resulted in a disproportionate negative impact on a student or an outcome that was inconsistent with the original intent of the rule.
The Committee on Academics’ request applies only to initial-eligibility, progress-toward-degree and two-year college transfer waiver requests. The review process has also applied to student-athlete reinstatement requests and other types of legislative relief. The committees that oversee each process will decide whether they would like the process to be permanent in their areas before asking the Council to make a decision.
The committee also:
- Discussed identification and support of academically at-risk student-athletes and how to effectively measure academic achievement, as requested by the Division I Board of Directors.
- Received an update from the Eligibility Center and research staff about the upcoming redesign of the SAT. The staff anticipates some students will take the current version before March 2016 and the redesigned version of the test after that date. Because the redesigned SAT is a different test from the current exam and measures different academic concepts, the numerical scores will not be equivalent. As recommended by the College Board, the committee members agreed that the Eligibility Center will not combine section scores across the two versions of the test, commonly known as a “super score,” when evaluating test scores for initial-eligibility purposes. The Eligibility Center will combine section scores within the same versions of the test. The Division II Management Council made the same decision Oct. 20 for incoming Division II students.
- Reviewed feedback related to its proposal on academic integrity, discussed potential changes to the legislation and ultimately decided to allow the Council to vote on the measure as originally introduced.