The academic landscape of the NCAA could be drastically different by this time next year, NCAA President Mark Emmert said Monday.
At a meeting with the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, Emmert discussed a number of proposals that will be finalized and sent straight to the Division I board of directors, which will meet Thursday in Indianapolis.
These proposals won't just have an impact on current college athletes. High school student-athletes hoping to play at the collegiate level will need to keep a close eye on a number of these proposed changes, too.
One such proposal would raise the minimum GPA for incoming student-athletes from 2.0 to 2.3. Emmert stressed that this particular proposal hadn't been finalized yet, meaning that the 2.3 GPA is still subject to change at this point.
Another proposal would require that students take rigorous courses all throughout their high school career, to end what Emmert dubbed the "summer miracle" phenomenon.
Emmert was referring to situations when student-athletes who haven't completed nearly the required amount of coursework suddenly show up with 16 credits of straight A's, all of which happened in the summertime.
"They need to get serious about academics when they're a freshman in high school or a sophomore in high school, not in their junior year or senior year," Emmert said. "They need to take courses in a respectable sequence that makes intellectual sense."
Many of these proposed changes came about as a result of the presidents retreatthat Emmert convened earlier this summer—"one of the best conversations we've had on any subject, not just athletics," he said.
One such change that was already approved by the Division I board of directors: linking academic success to postseason performance.
Starting immediately, teams that fall below an Academic Progress Rate of 900 (which equates to roughly a 40 percent graduation rate) over a rolling four-year period will be ineligible for postseason play. Under the old rules, teams with an APR below 900 could participate in postseason play.
After two years, teams will need to achieve an APR of 930—roughly equivalent to a 50 percent graduation rate—to be allowed to participate in the postseason.
"If you're going to be able to participate in postseason play, you need to do ...
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Photo: NCAA President Mark Emmert, right, talks with Northwestern University President Emeritus Henry Bienen, left, and Knight Commission Co-Chairman Brit Kirwan, chancellor of the University of Maryland System, during the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics meeting in Washington on Oct. 24. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
