Student Athlete Requirements Fair: Includes Loss of Some Great Potentials

Owen Brackett has always loved basketball. But he hasn’t always maintained the grades necessary to stay on his school teams.  Each year in middle school, as well as during his freshman year in high school, his struggles to pass all his classes kept him bouncing on and off his school’s basketball team.

But in recent years, Brackett, who lives in East New York, has turned his academic performance around. Now in his senior year, he hasn’t failed a class since freshman year, and he has decent grades, as opposed to barely passing. “Both of my parents dropped out of high school, and I’ve never been a good student,” he said. â€œBut I stepped it up with school so that I could stay on the team.  It definitely hasn’t been easy, though.” 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has tightened up in recent years on its grade requirements for student athletes and has begun enforcing those requirements strictly.  These rules have at times taken away the shot of a lifetime from kids who live for the sport they love. But at the same time, they have occasionally given students like Brackett the motivation to work as hard off the court as they do on the court.

According to the NCAA’s rules, student athletes must maintain a minimum grade point average of 2.0, along with minimum SAT or ACT scores.  If these requirements, along with the minimum number of courses that must be completed, are not fulfilled, a student athlete will not be eligible to play for his or her team.  Also, if a student had gotten into college with a scholarship, that financial aid will be revoked immediately if grades aren’t up to par.

High schools are responsible for preparing their student athletes for college level play, and part of that means making sure they keep up with their grades.  In some schools there has not been much of an issue with balancing grades and sports.  “Student-athletes are held to a high standard both in school and in our community,” said Gerry Foley, principle at North Kings Town High School in Rhode Island. “I find that most of them, about 95 percent, remain eligible.  They learn the important lesson of budgeting their time. They seem to do this better when they are engaged in sports than when they have a season off from athletics.”  

Displaying confidence in his schools handling of academics and sports, Foley added, “Eight of the top-ten ranked students in our graduating class of 2009 played sports in high school.”

The academic requirements of some schools can be particularly hard for students coming from impoverished or under-educated backgrounds.  Owen lives in East New York, a neighborhood once known as the “Dead Zone” because of its high crime rate, but he spends very little time socializing there.  “I never hang out outside where I live, especially at night,” said Brackett. “I come home to study and sleep.” His new priorities and social choices have paid off.  Brackett was named team captain by his coach last year, a spot that he would not have gotten if his grades continued to lag.

When student athletes don’t take school seriously, it can hurt them in the long run.  Often athletes can slide with bad grades in high school, but once college time comes, student cannot work their way around poor grades.  “I failed most of my classes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get to play,” said Omar Williams, the leading scorer on John Jay High School’s basketball team.  “I told Coach I would do better next quarter, and he let me back on the team after like a week.”

Omar could have the potential to be a good player in college, but if he doesn’t make progress academically, he may end up in same hole many student athletes have dug themselves into.

Centenary College’s men’s basketball team and Tennessee-Chattanooga’s football team were banned from post-season play next year by the NCAA for having poor Academic Progress Rate scores.  The Bowling Green State University Football team also took a hard fall for consistently poor grades, losing eight scholarships they had originally given students.  These schools have faced harsh realities for not emphasizing the importance of academic performance.

Owen had a teammate who was kicked off his team when he was a freshman, who he thought could have made it to Division I in college.  “He was the best player on our team by far,” Brackett said.  “But he couldn’t keep his grades up, and I heard he had a lot of problems off the court, a lot worse than my problems.  Then he was gone out of nowhere.”

No matter what problems student athletes have off the court, the NCAA feels strongly about holding its students to a standard, and keeping to that standard under all circumstances.

Paul Philips, Basketball Men’s Coach of Clark University, expressed his concern for the larger population, and the small loss that may come along as well.  “Like I say all the time, no matter how good you are, you’re not gonna make it anywhere with the wrong attitude.  Coaches in college, including myself, will get rid of a player quickly if they think they’re going to run the show.  Everyone has to deal with the same requirements, and people who have it harder than others need to adjust.  Some kids might not make it, but so many more kids have changed and grades in schools have gone up because the kids know they cannot play without the proper credentials.” 

Philips is not alone in believing the requirements help more students than they hurt.  According to an ESPN story published this year, there has been a 23 percent drop in students leaving school because of poor academic standings since the 2003-2004 season.  The report emphasized the positive change by saying that in the last decade, the NCAA has been reluctant to punish schools whose athletes do not perform well academically, but now that they have tightened up the requ
irements, schools are improving every year.  This is a system without sympathy, but it can have the effect of changing students’ priorities in a positive manner.

Owen is one of the student athletes who has benefited greatly from schools’ grade standards. Soon he will face the next step of college basketball, where there will be tougher competition and no breaks given if requirements are not met.  But he is ready and excited for that next step.  Brackett has dramatically gotten his act together, but admitted, “It’s kind of sad, but I improved my grades for basketball, not because I cared that much.”