Many high school student-athletes have aspirations to continue playing sports at the college level. If you are one of those student-athletes, it is important to know that you will need to register with the NCAA Eligibility Center so you will be eligible to play at the Division I level.
In addition, you must meet specific criteria in high school to be eligible to play at the college level your freshman year.
This is known as a full-qualifier, which means you will be eligible for competition, eligible to receive a scholarship, and be eligible to practice your freshman year.
In order to be eligible, you will need to complete 16 courses in high school in the following areas:
- Four years of English
- Three years of math at the Algebra I level or higher
- Two years of natural or physical science (one lab if offered at any high school attended)
- Two years of social science
- One year of additional English, math or natural/physical science
- Four years of additional classes from the areas above or foreign language, philosophy, or comparative religion
From these 16 high school courses, you will also need to have a minimum grade point average of a 2.300
In addition to meeting these course requirements and GPA, you will have to graduate from high school and meet a minimum score on the ACT or SAT college entrance exams. For the SAT, only the critical reading and math score will count. There is a “sliding scale” to meet the eligibility requirements, which means the higher your GPA is, the lower you can score on the ACT or SAT.
Another requirement to be a full-qualifier is that you must complete 10 core courses before your senior year in high school. Out of these 10 courses, seven must be in the areas of English, math, or science.
Besides a full-qualifier, the NCAA also has two other categories: Academic Redshirt and non qualifier. If you are going to be an Academic Redshirt, it means you can receive a scholarship and practice but will play on the team your freshman year. A non qualifier means that even though you are on the team, you can’t receive a scholarship and will not practice or compete your freshman year.
If you are a high school student-athlete and have any questions, please give us a call and we can set up an appointment to make sure you are on track to be eligible for college athletics.