Richard Atkinson, the president of the University of California,
said last year that “the SAT adds virtually nothing to our
ability to predict freshman college grades.” The NCAA has
apparently taken Atkinson’s advice to heart. Keeping with the
movement away from the use of standardized test scores to measure
student performance, the NCAA Management Council last week approved
a measure to adjust the sliding scale of GPA and SAT scores used to
determine first-year athlete eligibility. The proposal is being
forwarded to the NCAA Board of Directors for final approval on
Friday. “This change was based on a lot of research taking a
look at profiles of college students who graduate,” said
Wally Renfro, a press aide for the NCAA. The old plan required
student-athletes to reach the following standards in order to be
eligible to participate in athletics: “¢bull;A minimum 820 SAT
score. “¢bull;At least 13 core courses. “¢bull;A minimum GPA of 2.0
in core courses. Having all of the above wouldn’t guarantee
eligibility for incoming freshmen, but it would allow their grades
and scores to be put on a sliding scale to determine eligibility.
The new plan eliminates the minimum SAT score and raises the number
of core courses to 14 in order to determine who can qualify to be
on the sliding scale. The minimum 2.0 GPA for core courses
doesn’t change. “At this point there is a lot of debate
related to standardized test scores as a tool to measure academic
performance,” said Betsy Stephenson, associate athletic
director at UCLA and a member of the management council.
“That caused the NCAA to think that the cutoff SAT score
isn’t fair.” But the reform doesn’t stop there.
The continuing eligibility requirements were made tougher for
athletes already in school. The old 25/50/75 rule required students
to finish 25 percent of their degree requirements by the beginning
of their second year, 50 percent by the beginning of their third
year, and 75 percent by the beginning of their fourth. The new rule
is 40/60/80, which means students will have to take a tougher load
their freshman year and likely have to attend summer school.
“Most athletes have to go to summer school anyhow, because of
their time commitment to their sport,” Renfro said. Renfro
added that this policy will likely increase graduation rates, which
is the main goal of the adjustment.
Effects on UCLA Though graduation rates will likely increase
nationwide, UCLA probably won’t be affected by this rule as
much as other schools. The reason is because, for the most part,
UCLA’s admissions standards are already above what the NCAA
requires. “We don’t believe it will have a dramatic
impact on what we’re doing,” Stephenson said. Even
basketball players like Rico Hines and Evan Burns, who were both
initially declared ineligible to compete by the NCAA,
wouldn’t have been helped by the new rule. Both had the
minimum SAT score needed, but didn’t complete enough core
courses to gain eligibility. Hines had to go back to prep school in
order to become eligible. So the new rule, raising the number of
core courses needed, only would have put eligibility further out of
reach for these two players.
Impact on Minority Students The one major result of the rule
change will be an increase in the number of eligible minority
students. Minorities, blacks (average: 857) and Mexican-Americans
(average: 903) in particular, have lower SAT scores than the
national average (1020), according to The College Board’s
2002 data. Eliminating the minimum SAT score of 820 means that more
athletes will be eligible for the sliding scale, and, the NCAA
hopes, meet the other requirements to become eligible to play.
“I think the people that voted for this change are hoping to
avoid the unintended consequence of excluding anyone access to
school unnecessarily,” Stephenson said. “This new rule
could potentially change the complexion of the teams,” she
added. The new rules, which go into effect for the class of 2003,
are likely the first in a series of changes that the NCAA hopes
will maximize graduation rates nationwide while increasing
opportunities for minority students. “For the first time
ever, we are addressing in one legislative package the entire
academic experience of student-athletes, from high school
performance through college graduation,” said Percy Bates,
the chairman of the management council.