The NCAA announced some sweeping changes for D-I programs, players and recruiting rules beginning with the 2012-13 season.

Most important to high school players will be the new academic eligibility requirements, as follows:

“…the board agreed to raise eligibility standards for incoming freshmen and junior college transfers. Previously, high school seniors needed a 2.0 GPA in 16 core courses. Now they’ll need a 2.3 and will have to complete 10 of those classes before their senior year.”

This could have an immediate impact on high school players as they put together academic plans for their junior and senior years of high school. Now is the time for high school coaches to get their D-I level players to school counselors to make sure they are on track to meet the new requirements.

Other changes announced include:

• A measure allowing conferences to vote on providing up to $2,000 in spending money, or what the Indianapolis-based NCAA calls the full cost-of-attendance. Schools must infer the cost of additional funding and it will have to be doled out equally to men’s and women’s athletes because of Title IX rules.
• A measure that will give individual schools the authority to award scholarships on a multiple-year basis. Under the current model, those scholarships are renewed annually and can be revoked for any reason. If adopted, schools could guarantee scholarships for the player’s entire career and would be unable to revoke it based solely on athletic performance. Scholarships could still be pulled for reasons such as poor grades, academic misconduct or other forms of improper behavior.
• In August, the board approved raising the four-year Academic Progress Rate cutline from 900 to 930 and linking that cutline to eligibility for postseason play. On Thursday, it passed a four-year plan to phase in the new requirements. During the first two years, 2012-13 and 2013-14, teams scoring below 900 on the four-year average would be ineligible for postseason play unless the averaged 930 on the two most recent years of data. In 2014-15, teams that do not hit the 930 mark would be ineligible unless they averaged 940 in the two most recent years. After that, everyone must hit 930, no exceptions.
• Agreement to drop the text-messaging ban and allow unlimited contacts to prep players after June 15 of their sophomore year. But instead of having 20 evaluation days in July, coaches will have four in April, previously a dead period, and 12 in July. And they’ll have more on-campus contact with recruits and current players during the summer. Some of those details will be worked out in January.

Read more details:

NCAA approves major scholarship changes at meeting – Indianapolis Business Journal