New NCAA academic requirements will raise the standards for incoming freshman student-athletes this fall.
Changes include raising the core course requirement and a new degree completion percentage checked each year.
Mary Boudreaux, Academic Center for Athletes associate director, said the new rules go into effect Aug. 1 and mostly will affect undecided student-athletes.
Incoming freshman student-athletes must complete 14 core high school courses prior to entering college. The previous requirement was 13 core courses and will increase to 16 in 2008, Boudreaux said
Another requirement calls for student-athletes to complete 24 hours of college courses in their first year.
The degree completion states that student-athletes must complete 40 percent of their degree requirements by the start of their third year and must complete 80 percent by the start of their fifth year.
Boudreaux said student-athletes will have to choose a major quickly because the new rules provide little time for deliberation.
Boudreaux said student-athletes choosing to stay undecided past their third semester will have problems fulfilling the graduation percentage requirements.
Collis Temple III, basketball player and recent two degree graduate, said balancing sports and academics is tough if the student-athlete is unprepared.
“[Balancing athletics and academics] depends on the background of the student-athlete,” Temple said. “If he has come from a background where he has been balancing academics and athletics since middle school and high school and has been doing it successfully, it is not quite as hard. But, if you have someone who has been breezing through and has not taken the academics side of things as seriously as they should have then it is going to be a lot harder.”
Incoming freshman are not the only student-athletes the new rule changes will affect.
Boudreaux said junior college transfers also will feel the effects of the new requirements.
Junior college transfers will have to complete 40 percent of their degree requirements before they can transfer.
Many of the new requirements are directed at incoming freshman.
Temple said summer school can help incoming freshman student-athletes get accustomed to college life and could help the transition into these new requirements.
“It’s not as intense of a situation, it’s a little more laid back,” Temple said. “You don’t have to take quite as many hours and it is a good way to get an introduction.”
Student-athletes will meet in August with Boudreaux and other academic advisers to go through the new requirements.