The NCAA Thursday “approved a landmark proposal that will raise the academic requirements to qualify for postseason competition in all Division I sports,” according to Stu Durando of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. To participate in NCAA championships, including the men's basketball tournament and football bowl games, teams “will need a four-year average Academic Progress Rate score of 930,” which is “roughly equivalent" to a 50% graduation rate. Based on APR scores released in May, 10 teams that played in the ‘11 men's basketball tournament “fell below the 930 mark, including national champion Connecticut.” The previous requirement had been an APR of 900, and “only four schools had been banned from postseason play since that rule took effect in 2008.” How soon the new standards will be implemented “has not been determined.” NCAA President Mark Emmert said that he “could envision a scenario in which teams are required to post a 900 the first year, 910 the second and so forth until the 930 marker is reached” (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 8/12). Univ. of Hartford President Walt Harrison said that the new ARP benchmark “will be phased in … starting lower and rising to a 930 APR over three to five years.” Details “will be worked out in the next two months.” USA TODAY’s Wieberg & Gardiner note university presidents on the Division I BOD “took Thursday’s action in Indianapolis after two days of separate meetings” in which they and other school and conference officials “called for significant changes” (USA TODAY, 8/12). In Hartford, Dom Amore writes the NCAA “seem determined to show critics it can bring reform, rather than just talk about it.” Emmert said, "Those who say we are incapable of (acting quickly) will be [pleasantly] surprised in the coming weeks and months" (HARTFORD COURANT, 8/12).
WHAT TO EXPECT: SI.com’s Stewart Mandel wrote Ohio State Univ.’s “much-chronicled troubles -- along with those of ... every other high-profile headliner who's put a blight on the landscape over the past year -- prompted the unprecedented sense of urgency that suddenly swept through Indianapolis this week.” Based on comments made this week, and Thursday's evidence “that these things really can come to fruition, we should expect major changes in three other areas over the next six to nine months.” Those changes include an “overhaul of the current enforcement process," allowing individual conferences to "implement full cost-of-attendance scholarships and/or multiyear scholarships," and "raising initial academic eligibility standards both for high school seniors and juco transfers." Mandel wrote, “No, this isn't the complete system revolt the NCAA's harshest critics would like to see. But by NCAA standards, these are unquestionably major changes. And somehow, it only took two days to agree to them” (SI.com, 8/11).
CHANGING THE GAME: ESPN.com’s Diamond Leung wrote by “upping the standard to 930, the game is changed for everyone.” Schools will need to “find recruits more academically fit for college who have a desire to graduate and at the very least leave school in good academic standing if they transfer or turn pro.” Big-name coaches “will need to put greater emphasis on studying or risk the embarrassment and heartbreak of telling their teams they won't be allowed to compete for a national championship.” Leung wrote, “If you want to put real teeth into the term ‘student-athlete,’ threaten to take away the chance at an NCAA tournament and the financial windfall that comes with it. That's just what the NCAA did Thursday. That threat is now very much real” (ESPN.com, 8/11). In Hartford, Jeff Jacobs writes college presidents “sound serious this time.” Maybe they are “tired of being the national punch line for ineffectiveness and hypocrisy.” Jacobs: “Maybe at this point we should restrict ourselves to shouting 'Hallelujah!' and filing it under AFT: About Freaking Time” (HARTFORD COURANT, 8/12).
