New NCAA Rules May Keep Many High School Athletes From College Athletics

Last month, the NCAA's Division I Board of Directors quietly passed legislation designed to prevent high-school athletes with low grades from taking fluff courses to increase their chances of playing college sports.

The rule, which goes into effect on August 1, stipulates that students may count only one core course that they take after graduating from high school toward the academic requirements they need to play college sports.

The change comes on the heels of a series of news reports that detailed how some athletes used transcripts from bogus private schools to boost their grade-point averages and help them to qualify for major college sports programs.

Following the reports, the NCAA investigated the transcripts and student records of dozens of preparatory schools. During the investigation, NCAA officials discovered that a growing number of athletes were not only taking fluff courses in order to inflate their grade-point averages, but were also dropping out of high school after their sports seasons ended and enrolling in a diploma mill to complete their high school course requirements.

"Kevin C. Lennon, an NCAA vice president who has headed the association's investigation of diploma mills, said that the finding he found most distasteful was that "Some of our college coaches were encouraging the behavior."

The NCAA's investigation resulted in colleges being banned from accepting transcripts from at least 15 schools.

NCAA officials clearly hope that the new rule will not only discourage athletes with low grade-point averages from seeking out fraudulent schools and fluff courses to qualify for college sports programs, but will also deter operators of private preparatory schools from running diploma mills and college coaches from encouraging star athletes to skirt the requirements.

Some college-sports officials believe the rule change could lead many poor-performing high-school athletes to enroll in junior colleges instead of preparatory schools. This may be undesirable given that attending the private preparatory schools allows student-athletes to not only improve their grades, but also work on their games and preserve their eligibility to play four years of college sports.