David Glenn, of the
ACC Sports Journal,
has been studying student/athlete requirements for nearly 15 years. He said the new requirements make it easier for a student athlete to get to college by putting more weight on high school GPA instead of the SAT. However, he said it will also be tougher to stay in, because athletes will have to complete nearly twice as many classes by the end of their second year.
"Everyone wants to be competitive on the field, but not everybody wants to sacrifice those academic standards to do so," Glenn said.
Glenn said ACC schools will have to decide whether to lower their entrance requirements.
"The SEC is going to lower the bar. The SEC has done nothing in its history to suggest that it's going to maintain high academic standards, so if your competitors are lowering the bar, isn't it very, very intriguing for you to at least examine the possibility," Glenn said.
Glenn said the new requirements may force coaches to focus more on just getting players in the door and worry later about keeping them eligible.
"They've recruited the guy who can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, but he's their All-American tailback. That's a tough philosophical decision to make," Glenn said.
Athletes will be grandfathered in over the next two years. The NCAA is also considering another proposal that would keep teams from participating in the NCAA tournament if they do not meet certain graduation requirements.
If that rule were in place right now, only 15 out of more than 100 schools would have football and basketball teams that could compete. Duke and UNC are among the few who would still play.
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