Student Athletes

Student Athletes

NCAA Rules and Compliance:

1. The NCAA Manual is nearly 500 pages long and there is a rule governing just about everything.

One chapter is devoted strictly to the recruiting of high school students or as the NCAA defines them: Prospects.

2. A student becomes a prospect when they start classes for the 9th grade. A student becomes a recruited prospect when a college either provides him/her with an official visit or places more than one telephone call to the prospect or family or when a coach visits the prospect or his/her family anywhere other than on the college campus.

3. An official visit is when a college invites a senior prospect to campus for a paid visit. A prospective student-athlete may take a maximum of five expense-paid visits to Division I institutions, with not more than one permitted to any single institution. A senior prospect is only allowed five official visits, so a highly recruited prospect will need to be selective and make informative choices. This restriction applies regardless of the number of sports in which the prospective student-athlete is involved.

4. Some coaches will request transcripts and test scores in advance to determine a prospect’s academic record. At times, the overall academic record might make a coach “back off” a student and not invite him/her to come to campus if he/she does not appear to have the grades to become a qualifier or meet admission standards.

5. Any prospect (9th -12th grade) may take as many unofficial visits as they like. This is when the prospect pays his/her way to campus for a visit.

6. Each sport has different recruiting calendars, which places restriction on when they may or may not visit with a prospect face to face. Football and basketball are the most restrictive. There are times when football and basketball coaches may come to the high school to meet with the counselors and/or athletic director or coach, but may not have any contact with the prospect.

7. College coaches can generally meet with prospects at the high school anytime, but can only do it three times during the school year.

8. Only core courses are used in the calculation of the grade point average for the NCAA. Be sure to look at SJCS’s list of NCAA approved core courses on the NCAA’s Eligibility Center Website to

make certain that the courses you are taking, or are planning to take, have been approved as core courses.

9. The best thing for everyone involved in the recruiting process is education. If a prospect and parents become educated with the rules and ask questions, they will be in control and can sort through all of the information presented to them from different coaches.

10. A great resource is the Guide to the College-Bound Student-Athlete. This book summarizes the rules and regulations in an easy-to-read format. It includes guidelines relating to recruiting, eligibility, financial aid and college freshman eligibility requirements for Divisions I and II. A printable version of the guide can be found by visiting the NCAA website at www.ncaa.org.

NAIA Eligibility:

Several years ago the NAIA began registering high school students for NAIA eligibility. To play NAIA sports, every student must be registered with the NAIA Eligibility Center. Please visit www.PlayNAIA.org to learn more.

One important factor to remember is that every single one of the athletes who play competitive intercollegiate athletics must be admitted!