Following is a timeline of more recent academic reforms, beginning with a 1991 meeting of presidents intended to strategize ways to strengthen academic standards.
May 9, 1991 – NCAA Presidents Commission holds hearings intended to help develop stronger academic standards
January 10, 1992 – NCAA adopts Prop. 16, establishing an initial eligibility index based on standardized test scores and grade-point averages.
January 2003 – Division II approves an increase in the core-course requirement from 13 to 14 and increases the grade-point requirements for continuing eligibility.
October 2002- Division I increases its minimum progress-toward-degree requirements and raises minimum GPA requirements and increases the number of minimum core-courses required for initial eligibility from 13 to 14.
April 2003 – Division I approves an increase in the core-course requirement from 14 to 16, effective in 2008.
April 2004 - Division I adopts a comprehensive academic-reform package, which established the Academic Progress Rate (APR) to measure academic performance for all sports teams on a term-by-term basis; created penalties for teams that do not meet APR benchmarks; and established the Graduation Success Rate, which measures graduation rates and includes students transferring into the institutions. The GSR also allows institutions to subtract student-athletes who leave their institutions prior to graduation as long as they would have been academically eligible to compete had they remained.
January 10, 2005 – Division II adopts the ASR, which measures graduation rates at Division II institutions and is very similar to the GSR. The difference is that the ASR also includes those freshmen who were recruited to the institution but did not receive athletics financial aid.
July 2005 – The Committee on Academic Performance, which created and oversees the administration of the APR, votes to allow student-athletes who depart for professional opportunities while eligible to count as a “1-for-1” instead of a “1-for-2.”
August 2006 – Division I adopts the “improvement-plus” model that allows teams below a 900 APR to gain relief from the initial phase of the historically based penalties by first demonstrating consistent and significant APR improvement, then meeting at least at least one institutional-characteristic component (including a comparison between the team and the general student body graduation rates and a resource component).
January 2008 – The Board of Directors approves a CAP policy that would treat transfer student-athletes that achieve a 2.6 grade-point average or higher, immediately transfer to another four-year institution and earn the eligibility point as a “1-for-1” in the APR formula.
October 2008 – Division I approves the creation of a head coach APR portfolio, which will collect and compile the single-year APR for head coaches and be publicly available. Data for head coaches in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, football and women’s indoor and outdoor track will be available in 2010, with other sports to follow.
History of Academic Reform
Since its founding in 1906, the NCAA has made the academic commitment and success of student-athletes a top priority. One of the national concerns that led to the formation of the Association was the practice of football players participating at several different schools – sometimes within the same season. Leaders believed – and still believe – that participation in intercollegiate athletics is part of the higher education experience and teaches values that are difficult to learn in a classroom. Student-athletes must, therefore, be students first.
Throughout NCAA history, academic reform was undertaken with the goal of strengthening the bond between athletics and higher education. In 1983, the NCAA adopted Prop. 48, a measure that established a 2.0 minimum grade-point average, 700 SAT score and 11 earned core courses as a minimum standard for prospective student-athletes. The rule was superseded in 1992 when new initial eligibility standards, including a “sliding scale” relationship between standardized test scores and high school core-course grade-point average in Division I, were adopted.
Once a student-athlete is enrolled at an NCAA institution, he or she is required to make progress toward a degree. The Association has set minimum progress-toward-degree standards for NCAA student-athlete to be eligible for continued participation that include grade-point average minimums and a percentage of courses taken that count toward a declared degree program.
In the early part of this century, the NCAA developed the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and Academic Success Rate (ASR) in response to college and university presidents who wanted graduation data that more accurately reflect the mobility among college students today. Both rates improve on the federally mandated graduation rate by including students who were omitted from the federal calculation.
Division I also adopted the APR, a metric developed to track the academic achievement of Division I teams each academic term. Each student-athlete earns one retention point for staying in school and one eligibility point for being academically eligible. A team’s total points divided by points possible, multiplied by one thousand equals the team’s APR score. Teams that fall below the minimum APR score of 925 face possible sanctions ranging from scholarship reductions to more severe penalties.
Over the years, the core-course requirement established by Prop. 48 was changed, and today prospective student-athletes in Divisions I must pass 16 core courses to be eligible for competition. Right now, Division II student-athletes must pass 14 core courses, but freshmen entering NCAA institutions beginning in 2013 will have the same core-course requirement as Division I freshmen.
As the NCAA becomes more reliant on data – and data become more readily available – future academic reforms are likely.
Last Updated: Feb 8, 2010
