The NCAA core course requirement ensures college-bound student-athletes are taking high school courses that prepare them for the academic expectations in college.
What is a core course?
Not all high school courses are NCAA-approved core courses and may not count toward the 16 core-course credit requirement. A core course must meet the following requirements to be used in a student’s academic certification:
- Meet high school graduation requirements in one or more of the following subject areas:
- English
- Math (Algebra I or higher)
- Science (Including one year of lab, if offered)
- Social Science
- World Language
- Comparative Religion
- Philosophy
- Be on your high school’s list of NCAA-approved core courses.
- Be completed in alignment your high school’s policies related to instruction, pacing, etc.
- Be completed at a high school with a “Cleared” or “Extended Evaluation” Eligibility Center account status.
10/7 Requirement
The 10/7 requirement ensures student-athletes are best positioned to meet the rigors of Division I academics while participating in college athletics. To be eligible to practice, compete and receive an athletics scholarship in their first year of full-time enrollment at a Division I school a student must complete 10 of their 16 NCAA-approved core-course credits, including seven in English, math or science, before the start of their seventh semester.
Maintaining Your High School’s NCAA Core-Course List
If you’re your high school’s primary or secondary contact with the Eligibility Center and your high school is not part of a unified curriculum NCAA district account, you’re responsible for keeping your high school’s NCAA core-course list up to date. This includes submitting updates to your high school’s existing list, archiving old course titles and uploading core-course documentation for review (when applicable). If you believe your school’s list is accurate, please log in to the High School Portal to verify you have no updates. This will refresh your account and let the Eligibility Center know your school’s core-course list is correct.
Adding Course Titles
After your high school determines new course offerings, you should update your high school’s list of courses. If your high school determines new course offerings in January and you promptly update your NCAA course list, course decisions will be made by the NCAA Eligibility Center in time for you to schedule students for the next academic year. You may update your high school’s list of NCAA-approved courses through the High School Portal, which also includes a tutorial on how to update your list.
Courses submitted through the High School Portal will be reviewed within three-to-five business days. Your high school’s contacts will be notified by email of the status of the submitted courses.
Changing Course Titles
If the title of a course is substantively changing, you should update your list in the High School Portal. Course title changes may require submission of additional information to determine if the new course title meets NCAA core-course legislation and criteria. If it is simply a matter of word order, there is no need to submit the change. For example, Honors Biology, Biology Honors, H/Biology, HBio, BioH and Bio-H are all titles used to represent the same honors course in biology.
Archiving Course Titles
You may choose to archive courses that are no longer taught, leaving them visible on your high school’s archived list. For example, if your high school stops teaching a course on Shakespeare at the end of the 2024-25 school year, you may archive it, even though students who took the course may still be working through the NCAA eligibility process. Students who complete the Shakespeare course in the 2024-25 school year or before would still be able to use the course in their certification.
Some schools prefer to keep courses on their active list until the last students who could have taken the course graduate. Other schools prefer to archive their courses once they are no longer taught. What difference does it make? A more concise list can help students, families and coaches find active courses more easily. Archiving your courses and updating your list of courses can be done via the High School Portal.
The following course title changes should be updated:
- Freshman Composition to English 1.
- Biology to Living Environment.
- Ancient Cultures to World History I.
The following course title changes do not need to be updated:
- Algebra 1 to Algebra I.
- H Chem to Chem/H.
- Econ to Economics.
Audited Courses
There may be times when a course erroneously appears on a high school’s list of NCAA courses. This may be due to changes in NCAA legislation or a course mistakenly submitted or approved.
When it becomes necessary to audit a course from a list, the NCAA Eligibility Center staff works to ensure students who have taken such a course in the past are not negatively impacted by the removal. For example, if “Health” appeared on a high school’s list of NCAA courses and was subsequently audited, it would appear as “Not Approved” beginning the next academic year with a notation that the course may be used through the school year it was audited. Therefore, students who took the course before it was audited and removed still would be able to use the course in their NCAA academic certification.
