NCAA "Core Course" Requirements - Is the NCAA Out of Touch?

NCAA Core Course Requirements – Is the NCAA out of touch?

Starting August 2016 a high school student athlete must achieve a 2.3 core course GPA to be fully eligible for a Div I athletic scholarship.  In addition, the student athlete must complete a total of 16 core courses before high school graduation, seven of those 10 core courses must be from a combination of English, math and natural/physical science; and 10 of those 16 core courses must be completed before starting the senior year of high school.

Core courses include the following:  English; math; natural/physical science; social science; foreign language, comparative religion; and philosophy.   

Sounds reasonable enough, I guess.  However, the following classes are NOT considered core courses and therefore not factored into the required GPA for athletic scholarship eligibility:  Art; Music; Personal Finance; Video Editing, Welding; Software Application; Website Construction; and Computer Repair.

Is the NCAA out of touch?  Does this approach make sense in our increasingly service-industry, freelance economy?  And how is “social science” more of an indicator of academic acumen than website construction?  What occupation is in demand and gets more google hits between “local social scientist’ compared to “local website designer”? 

Music is the first cousin of mathematics, Art teaches creative thinking, and Personal Finance is probably one of the most important classes a high school kid can take.  But none of these classes is stressed as a “core course.”  So where do expect a high school kid’s focus will be based on these standards?

A kid can BS his or her way through a philosophy exam but not so much when expected to play “Three Blind Mice” on the clarinet for a passing grade.  Could the NCAA play Three Blind Mice? 

Should the NCAA review its core course requirements?

Phillies Turn Unsigned Draft Pick in to NCAA for Using Agent

A cautionary tale for sports parents with student-athletes wanting to test the waters of professional sports.  The baseball draft works differently from football but the bottom line is that student-athletes and their families are responsible for knowing the rules to protect amateur status. 

When in doubt, refer to your university's Professional Sports Counseling Panel, rather than an "agent" or "advisor," for advise on your son's marketability and prospects in the pros.  Once a student-athlete loses his amateur status, he is done in that sport at the college level. 

The NCAA Professional Sports Counseling Panel information is found in the NCAA Div I manual at section 12.3.4.

Story is below.   

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24449174/report-phillies-turn-unsigned-draft-pick-in-to-ncaa-for-using-an-agent

Wide Receiver - The Recruiting Game (Intangibles)

Recruiting Wide Receivers – The Intangibles

For high school wide receivers with a goal of playing college ball, there are four quick boxes that will be checked off by every football recruiter looking their way: 

Speed (up field separation);
Quickness (lateral separation);
Size (creating mismatches); and
Character (football IQ, leadership, drive, mental toughness, off field behavior)

Which of the above four traits does your student-athlete have ultimate control over?  Does it make any sense that a guy like Wes Welker, at five foot nine can dominate defenses?  Is he fast?  Sort of.  Quick?  Somewhat, but no more than most other NFL receivers.  And his size?  Not quite imposing unless matched up against a Del Mar horse jockey.  What separates Wes Welker are the intangibles - his character, and drive to compete and impose his will on defenders. 

Every high school wide receiver will have a mixed bag of the four traits (speed, quickness, size and character).  Help your student-athlete to maximize the one trait that is always within their control (character).        

Football Moms and Concussion Awareness

3.9 million — that’s the estimated number of sports and recreational-related concussions every year in the United States, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  The problem, though, is that you can’t see a concussion.   

Briefly, a concussion is an injury that changes how the cells in the brain normally function and is caused by a blow to the head or body that causes the brain to move rapidly inside the skull.  The CDC reports that football and hockey have the highest number of concussions, followed by soccer, wrestling, basketball, field hockey, baseball, softball and volleyball. 

It’s estimated that U.S. high school athletes sustain 300,000 concussion per year; 67,000 from interscholastic football.  The risk of concussions is highest in the 15- to 19-year-old age group among all age groups nationally – and this is the group that is usually playing sports year-round.

According to the CDC, parents, coaches and staff should look for the follow symptoms after a forceful blow to a student-athlete’s head or body that results in rapid movement of the head:

Athlete appears dazed or stunned

Confusion about assignments or position

Moves clumsily

Loss of consciousness (even briefly)

Behavioral changes

Slurred speech

Can’t recall events prior to or after the fall or hit.

And student-athletes might self-report the following symptoms:

Headache or “pressure” in the head

Nausea or vomiting

Balance or dizziness problems

Double or blurry vision

Sensitivity to light or sound

Feeling sluggish

Concentration or memory problems.

Concussion Awareness Resources for parents and coaches:

CDC Heads Up Program: www.cdc.gov/ConcussionInYouthSports ;

Washington Interscholastic Activities Association: www.wiaa.com — “concussion management guidelines”;

Seattle Sports Concussion Program: www.uwmedicine.org — concussion education and examinations;

USA Football: www.usafootball.com.

NCAA Div. I Athletic Scholarships: "Core Course" Requirements

NCAA Div I “Core Course” Requirements

Grades matter when it comes to NCAA athletic scholarship eligibility.  Becoming an all-state wide receiver and running a 4.3 is great but that won’t get it done if your son is not hitting the books.  Starting August 2016, the Div. I will raise the academic eligibility requirements for scholarship eligibility.

So what is a core course?  A “core course” is an academic course that receives high school graduation credit generally in the following areas:

English
Math
Natural/physical science
Social science
Foreign Language
Comparative religion, or
Philosophy

Classes that do not meet the standards for “core courses” are, by definition, non-core area classes, or vocational class work.  This would include such classes as driver’s education, art, music, physical education, personal finance, consumer education.

It’s important to know the difference between core and non-core courses because only core courses are used to determine eligibility for athletic scholarships.  An overall GPA will differ from the core course GPA.  And these core courses start the freshman year of high school. 

For NCAA Div. I academic eligibility, a student-athlete must complete a total of 16 core courses before high school graduation; 10 of those core courses must be completed before entering the senior year of high school; and 7 of the 10 must be a combination of English, Math and Science.

For Div I, a student-athlete must graduate with at least a 2.3 core course GPA to be “eligible” for an athletic scholarship and full competition (they must also meet the individual university’s admission requirements as well – for example, the admission requirements at Stanford will differ from Chico State).  So NCAA academic eligibility is just the starting point.

Next, in addition to completing those 16 core courses with at least a 2.3 GPA, your student-athlete must meet the sliding scale requirements for SAT/ACT scores.  The sliding scale combination of core course GPA and test score determines eligibility.  The higher the GPA, the lower the required SAT/ACT score.

Can a student-athlete receive scholarship money and play sports if the grades are not met?  Starting August 2016, for Division I entering freshman student-athletes, there is a three-tiered qualification system:

Full Qualifier (all academic requirements are met):  this requires completing the 16 core courses, a 2.3 core course GPA, and the matching SAT/ACT score.  A full-qualifier student-athlete may receive athletic scholarship money and both practice and compete in games starting the freshman year of college.

Academic Redshirt:  this is the student-athlete that completes the 16 core courses, but with a GPA between 2.0-2.299 and the meets the SAT/ACT score for that GPA.  An academic redshirt may receive athletic scholarship money and practice with the team during the freshman year of college.  However, an academic redshirt may not play in games during the first year.  Also, the student-athlete must remain academically successful during the first term of college (completing 9 semester hours or 8 quarter hours) to be eligible to practice for the remainder of the year.

Non-Qualifier:  a non-qualifier is the student-athlete that falls short of the above academic standards.  A non-qualifier student-athlete cannot receive athletic scholarship money, cannot practice with the team, and cannot play in games during the first year of college.

Every high school’s list of approved core courses are listed at the NCAA Eligibility Center.  Once registered, you can track your student-athlete’s progress.  But get familiar with these requirements well before the freshman year of high school starts.

NCAA Eligibility Center:  www.EligibilityCenter.org

Angela Lee Duckworth: The key to success? Grit | Video on TED.com

The key to success?  Grit.  Nice 5 minute TED video from Angela Lee Duckworth on why "grit" is such an important trait to develop for long-term success. 

When working with your youth athlete on mental toughness overcoming adversity, "grit" is probably the most important skill set to focus on in the offseason. 

How to develop grit?  Make sure your youth athlete channels their energy into areas they have control over - effort, attitude, intensity, teamwork.  "Learned Helplessness" pops up when an athlete fails and does not see a way for them to change future outcomes - as a result they are more likely to quit.  On the other hand, when an athlete fails but believes that they can take steps to change future results this provides hope and a template for where to channel their energy. 

Angela Lee Duckworth: The key to success? Grit | Video on TED.com

How We Learn

People learn and retain information differently. 

If we're lucky, really lucky in fact, a student may retain 20% of what they "hear," maybe 30% of what they "see," around 50% of what the student both "sees and hears," and believe it or not the rate of retention jumps to around 90% for what the student actually "does."  

When teaching, make the content as interactive as possible to achieve long term results. 

Sports Parenting and Divorce - "You are a Rude, Thoughtless Little Pig!"

Sports parenting is challenging enough. 

Now throw in a divorce, disputes over custody time and how and who should pay for athletic fees and camps and it just becomes that much more difficult.  But divorced sports parents need to suck it up and get on the same page with the parenting plan and sharing expenses for youth sports.

An anecdote I share with my team's parents at the beginning of every season is the infamous case of Alec Baldwin vs. Kim Basinger: 

After a nine-year marriage, Baldwin and Basinger divorced and waged an eight-year custody battle involving $3M in court costs and legal fees, and over 90 court proceedings!!!! Who benefited from that?   

As painful as it is, sit down and calendar the yearly sports schedule, including summer clinics...and then create a parenting plan that works around that schedule.  Not the other way around. 

Baseball's Ted Williams - San Diego's Native Son

BASEBALL’S TED WILLIAMS – SAN DIEGO’S NATIVE SON

Spring is back (well, sort of...did summer ever leave SD???) with the Padres kicking off spring training in Peoria this week.  The first spring training game is Friday, February 28^th against the Seattle Mariners.    

With baseball on the brain DID YOU KNOW that hall of famer Ted Williams was a San Diego native?  Born and raised at 4121 Utah Street in North Park, Ted Williams went on to a hall of fame baseball career and was the last major leaguer to hit over .400 in a season. 

In the summer of ’41, Ted hit .406 for the Boston Red Sox (not bad considering his $20K salary that year.)  So you would think Ted Williams won the “most valuable player” award for that amazing feat but he did not.  Nope.  In the summer of ’41 Joe DiMaggio ripped a 56-game hit steak and DiMaggio’s Yankees went on to win the pennant that year against their cross-town rival the Brooklyn ‘Trolley’ Dodgers.  Both Ted Williams .406 season batting average and DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak remain unchallenged 70 plus years later and are widely considered “untouchable” at this point.  What a season! 

Other facts about San Diego’s Ted Williams:

Ted’s first professional “at bat” was in 1936 with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League – Ted struck out looking at a called 3^rd strike!  But he recovered…. 

Ted played 19 seasons with the BoSox and retired with a .344 lifetime batting average.

Ted Williams served as a marine combat pilot in both WWII and the Korean War.

Witnesses recall Ted stepping into Boston’s Fenway Park batter’s box after returning from the Korean War and he hit 9 home runs in a row at his first batting practice.

After retiring from baseball, Ted later became a world-class sports fisherman and is a member of the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame – Ted said his passion for fishing started when he was a kid casting lines into Mission Bay right here in Pacific Beach.

Jimmy, Barry & Pete - Authentic Leadership

There are only three football coaches in history that have won both an NCAA championship and the Super Bowl:  Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer and Pete Carroll.  How did they do it?  What makes them different? 

All three coaches are big personalities with different approaches to leadership.  But all three are authentic.  They are themselves, we know exactly who they are and what they are about – take it or leave it.  And they don’t make apologies.  This brand of leadership sells.  Players gravitate to and want to play for the kind of coach who is decisive, comfortable in their own skin, and above all, authentic.  

Quit or Adapt?

Let's say your son started at quarterback for the same coach in the same system for the last two years.  And you've spent a ton of cash on quarterback camps and offseason training.  Things change.  So get comfortable being uncomfortable.  The next year a new coach unexpectedly comes in, with a different offensive system.  As a result, your son is moved from QB to Strong Safety.  Do you quit or adapt?  When Steve Jobs gets the boot at Apple then we can't expect different or better treatment in our own situations.  Do you quit or adapt and come back stronger? 

NCAA Football - National Letter of Intent Signing Period Starts TODAY!!!

Congrats!  The NCAA Football National Letter of Intent signing period starts today, February 5th and runs thru April 1st.  Take a step back before signing that binding commitment.  Keep in mind that the school your student-athlete selects is a "40-year" decision. And best of luck on the new journey ahead.

As Players’ Agents, Women Face Extra Challenges - NYTimes.com

Good article on overcoming obsticles to reach a goal.



As Players’ Agents, Women Face Extra Challenges - NYTimes.com