The Division I board of directors adopted the new initial eligibility standards in October 2011, initially planning to implement the new standards in August 2015. To give prospects a fair chance to succeed under the new rules, the board eventually delayed the effective date to August 2016.
As it currently stands, college-bound student athletes have to meet a minimum core GPA of 2.0, along with a sliding scale for ACT and SAT scores, to be eligible. Under the new rules, any college-bound student athlete with a core GPA below a 2.3 will automatically have to take an academic redshirt for their first season on campus.
That academic redshirt counts as the redshirt year, so the player will have five years to play four years, the same impact on a player’s eligibility as a normal redshirt.
That might not seem like much of a change, but the kicker is that the requirements can only be filled using core courses such as English, math and science. A prospect can’t try to raise the core GPA with gym or basket weaving, so it could make a difference in the initial eligibility of some prospects.
“It won’t affect schools with higher academic standards anyway,” one ACC assistant told me, “but the teams who only need a 2.0 to get in for athletes will have trouble with depth because guys will be in the program, but can’t make any impact until their second season. “Obviously there are more positives for guys off the field, but on the field it could hurt teams who need bodies to play on special teams or specific packages.”
Another reason the new standards might make an impact is because the prospective student-athletes won’t be able to cram core classes in at the end of their high school career or try to make up grades past a certain point. Of the 16 core courses required for eligibility, 10 must be completed before the student’s seventh semester in high school and the grades for those courses will be “locked in” at the start of the seventh semester and cannot be repeated.
