You become a “prospective student-athlete” when you start ninth-grade classes. Before the ninth grade, you become a PSA if a college gives you (or your relatives or friends) any financial aid or other benefits that the college does not provide to prospective students generally.
You become a “recruited prospective student-athlete” at a particular college if any coach or representative of the college’s athletics interest (booster or representative) approaches you (or any member of your family) about enrolling and participating in athletics at that college.
In addition to general recruiting regulations, no alumni or representatives of a college’s athletics interest (boosters or representatives) can be involved in off-campus recruiting; however, you may receive letters from boosters, faculty members, students and coaches on or after September 1 of your junior year. In all sports, telephone calls from coaches and faculty members are permissible on or after June 15 before your senior year.
After this, a college coach or faculty member is limited to one telephone call per week to you (or your parents or legal guardians), unlimited calls to you (or your parents or legal guardians) may be made under the following circumstances:
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During the five days immediately before your official visit (by the college you will visit;
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On the day of the coach’s off-campus contact with you; and
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On the initial date for signing the National Letter of Intent in your sport through the two days after the initial signing date.
In Division II football, however, unlimited phone calls to you can be made during a contact period and once a week outside of a contact period.
Enrolled students (including student-athletes) may not make recruiting telephone calls to you unless the calls are made as part of an institution’s regular admissions program directed at all prospective students. Enrolled students (including student-athletes) may receive telephone calls at your expense on or after July 1 before your senior year.
You (or your family) may not receive any benefits, inducement or arrangement such as cash, clothing, cars, improper expenses, transportation, gifts or loans to encourage you to sign an institutional or conference letter of intent or to attend an NCAA school.
A college coach may contact you in person off the college campus but only on or after June 15 before your senior year.
Any face-to-face meeting between a coach and you or your parents, during which any of you say more than “hello” is a contact. Furthermore, any face-to-face meeting that is prearranged, or occurs at your high school or at any competition or practice site is a contact, regardless of the conversation. These contacts are not permissible “bumps.”
In all sports, coaches may contact you off the college campus three times. However, a coach may visit your high school (with your high-school principal’s approval) only once a week during a contact period.
An evaluation is any off-campus activity used to assess your academic qualifications or athletics ability, including a visit to your high school (during which no contact occurs) or watching you practice or compete at any site.
In all sports, coaches may evaluate you an unlimited number of times.
In football and basketball only, there are specified periods when a coach may contact you off the college campus and/or attend your practices and games to evaluate your athletics ability.
During your senior year, you can have one expense-paid (official) visit to a particular campus. You may receive no more than a total of five such visits. This restriction applies even if you are being recruited in more than one sport. A college may not give you an official visit unless you have provided it with a PSAT, ACT or SAT score from a test taken on a national testing date under national testing conditions.
During your official visit (which may not exceed 48 hours), you may receive round-trip transportation between your home (or high school) and the campus, and you (and your parents) may receive meals and lodging. You also may receive three complimentary admissions to campus athletics events. In addition, a student host may spend $30 per day to cover costs of entertaining you (and your parents, legal guardians or spouse); however, the money cannot be used to purchase college souvenirs such as T-shirts or other college mementos.
A Division II college, recruiting you, may provide to you printed recruiting materials on or after September 1 at the beginning of your junior year.
In addition, a Division II college may show you a highlight film/videotape, but may not send it to you or leave it with your coach.
Finally, a Division II college also may provide you with a questionnaire, camp brochure and educational information published by the NCAA at any time.
The activities listed below may cause you to lose your eligibility. Since there are division specific amateurism regulations, please contact NCAA student-athlete reinstatement or membership services if you have additional questions.
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Are paid (in any form) or accept the promise of pay for playing in an athletics contest;
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Sign a contract or verbally commit with an agent or a professional sports organization;
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Ask that your name be placed on a draft list [Note: In basketball, once you become a student-athlete at an NCAA school, you may enter a professional league’s draft one time without jeopardizing your eligibility provided you are not drafted by any team in that league and you declare your intention in writing to return to college within 30 days after the draft];
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Use your athletics skill for pay in any form (for example, TV commercials, demonstrations);
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Play on a professional athletics team;
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Participate on an amateur sports team and receive any salary, incentive payment, award, gratuity, educational expenses or expense allowances (other than playing apparel, equipment and actual and necessary travel, and room and board expenses);
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Receive educational expenses to attend a high school or preparatory college (tuition and/or fees, room and/or board) from an agent, professional sports team/organization or representative of an institution’s athletics interests; or
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Receive gifts or other benefits (e.g., vehicle, jewelry, meals) because of your athletics ability or reputation.
Before enrolling in college, you may:
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Tryout (practice with but not participate against outside competition) with a professional sports team at your expense;
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Receive actual and necessary expenses from any professional sports organizations for one visit per professional organization not in excess of 48 hours; and
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Receive a fee for teaching a lesson in a particular sport.
NCAA institutions are dedicated to the ideal of fair and equitable competition as well as the protection of the health and safety of the student-athletes. The NCAA drug-testing program was created so that no participant has an artificially induced advantage, that no participant might be pressured to use chemical substances to remain competitive and to safeguard the health and safety of participants.
The NCAA has a list of banned drugs. This list can be found on the NCAA Web page HERE. The NCAA has issued warnings about the use of dietary supplement products. Because of the lack of regulation in the production, distribution and sale of these products, the purity is unknown; some may contain banned substances. Students should check with coaches, physicians and the Dietary Supplement Resource Exchange Center (877-202-0769 toll free) before taking any of these products. Some supplements contain substances such as ephedrine (ma huang), DHEA, androstenedione and norandrostenedione, which are banned by the NCAA but are sold in health food stores.
Each academic year in Division II sports, in which the NCAA conducts year-round drug testing, you must sign a drug-testing consent form when you report for practice or before the Monday of your college’s fourth week of classes, whichever occurs earlier. In all other Division II sports, you must sign a drug-testing consent form before you compete. Drug testing occurs randomly on a year-round basis in Division II football and track and field. Drug testing also is conducted at NCAA championship and football bowl games. If you test positive, you will lose a season of competition in all sports if the season of competition has not yet started. If the season of competition has started, you will lose one full season of competition in all sports (i.e., remaining contests in the current season and contests in the following season up to the time that you were declared ineligible during the previous year). In addition, many colleges have their own drug-use policies that may affect your participation.
Further, the use of tobacco products is prohibited for coaches, game officials and student-athletes in all sports during practice and competition. A student-athlete who uses tobacco products during practice or competition automatically is disqualified for the remainder of that practice or game.
To help you in selecting a college, the NCAA national office annually makes available Division II admissions and graduation-rate information. To make the information easy to get, the Division II college that is recruiting you must provide its graduation-rate information to you, as well as your parents, at the earlier of the following opportunities: (1) upon request by you or your parents, or (2) after the school’s first arranged in-person meeting with you (or your parents) but not later than the day before you sign a National Letter of Intent or an offer of admission and/or financial aid.
In addition, the NCAA national office makes graduation-rate information available annually to your high school.
You can view Virginia State University's graduation-rate information here.
If you are first entering a Division II college on or after August 1, 1996, in order to be classified a ‘qualifier,” you are required to:
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Graduate from high school;
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Have a GPA of 2.000 (based on a maximum of 4.000) in a successfully completed core curriculum of at least 13 academic course units as follows:
English 3 years
Mathematics 2 years
(Algebra I or higher)
Natural or physical science (incl. one lab
Course, if offered by the high school) 2 years
Additional courses in English, mathematics,
Or natural or physical science 2 years
Social science 2 years
Additional academic courses [in any of the
Above areas or foreign language, computer
science*, philosophy or nondoctrinal religion
(e.g., comparative religion) courses] 3 years
*PLEASE NOTE: For students entering college on or after August 1, 2005, computer-science courses may only be used for initial-eligibility purposes if the course receives graduation credit in mathematics or natural/physical science and is listed as such on the high school's list of NCAA-approved core courses.
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In Division II, there is no sliding scale. The minimum core grade-point average is 2.000. The minimum SAT score is 820 (Verbal and Math sections only) and t he minimum ACT sum score is 68.
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Students first entering a Division I or Division II collegiate institution on or after August 1, 2005, must meet the new 14 core-course rule.
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The SAT combined score is based on the Verbal and Math sections only. The new writing section will not be used.
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For more information regarding the new rule, please go to www.ncaa.org. Click on "Student-athletes and Parents" in the "Custom Home Pages" section. You may also visit the NCAA Eligibility Center web site at web1.ncaa.org/eligibilitycenter/common/.
A “partial qualifier” is eligible to practice with a team at its home facilities and receive an athletics scholarship during his or her first year at a Division II school, and then has four seasons of competition remaining.
In order to be classified a “partial qualifier,” you have not met the requirements for a qualifier, but you are required to graduate from high school and meet one of the following requirement:
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Specified minimum SAT or ACT score; or
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Successful completion of a required core curriculum consisting of 13 core courses and a 2.000 grade-point average in the core curriculum.
A nonqualifier is a student who has not graduated from high school or who has presented neither the core-curriculum grade-point average and SAT/ACT score required for a qualifier.
A nonqualifier is not eligible for regular-season competition and practice during the first academic year in residence and then has four seasons of competition. A nonqualifier may not receive athletic-related aid as a freshman, but may receive regular need-based financial aid if the school certifies that aid was granted without regard to athletics ability.
To meet the “core-course” requirement:
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The core course must be defined as a recognized academic course and qualify for high-school graduation credit in one or a combination of the following areas: English, mathematics, natural/physical science, social science, foreign language, computer science, or nondoctrinal religion/philosophy;
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The course must be considered college preparatory by the high school. College preparatory is defined for these purposes as any course that prepares a student academically to enter a four-year collegiate institution upon graduation from high school.
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The course must be taught by a qualified instructor as defined by the appropriate academic authority (e.g., high school, school district or state agency with authority of such matters) and at or above the high school’s regular academic level (i.e., remedial, special education or compensatory courses shall not be considered core courses).
All prospective student-athletes, including natives of foreign countries, must achieve the minimum required test score on a national testing date. Foreign prospective student-athletes should contact the appropriate testing agency for more information about registering to take the test on a national testing date.
If you take the SAT, the highest scores achieved on the verbal and math sections of the SAT from two different national testing dates may be combined in determining whether you have met the minimum test-score requirement. [Note: This includes combining converted subscores from the “recentered” and “non-recentered” versions of the SAT.]
If you take the ACT, the highest scores achieved on the individual subtests from more than one national testing date may be combined in determining whether your sum score meets minimum test score requirements.
NCAA Eligibility Center
The NCAA Eligibility Center will certify your athletics eligibility for Divisions II. Here is some important information that will assist you.
If you intend to participate in Division II athletics as a freshman, you must register and be certified by the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse.
In order to register with the NCAA Eligibility Center, you must complete the registration process found at https://web1.ncaa.org/eligibilitycenter/common/ (also available at www.ncaa.org). You may also complete the student release form and mail or fax the top (white) copy of the form to the Eligibility Center along with the $30 registration fee. Give the yellow and pink copies of the form to a high-school official, who then sends the yellow copy, along with an official copy of your high-school transcript, to the clearinghouse. Your high school should keep the pink copy for its files. After graduation and before the school closes for the summer, your school also must send the Eligibility Center a copy of your final transcript that confirms graduation from high school.
A student who transfers to a member institution from a two-year or four-year college or from a branch school that conducts an intercollegiate athletics program must complete an academic year of residence, unless the student meets the following eligibility requirements applicable to the division of which the certifying institution is a member. Further, a transfer student-athlete admitted after the 12th class day may not use that semester or quarter for the purpose of establishing residency.
A transfer student from a two-year or four-year college is eligible for competition, practice and athletic aid during the first academic year in residence at the certifying institution if the following requirements have been met:
a. The student-athlete has attended a two-year college or four-year as a full-time student for at least two
semesters or three quarters; and
b. The student-athlete has satisfied one of the following provisions:
1. Graduated from the two-year college; or
2. Presented a minimum of 24-semester or 36 quarter hours of transferable-degree credit with a cumulative minimum grade-point average of 2.000 and, for those student- athletes first entering a two-year collegiate institution on or after August 1, 1996, satisfactorily completed an average of at least 12-semester or quarter hours of transferable-degree credit |acceptable toward any baccalaureate degree program at the certifying institution for each academic term of full-time attendance.
Partial qualifiers who do not meet the requirements set forth may practice and receive athletics aid (but may not compete) at the certifying institution during their first academic year of residence.
Nonqualifiers who do not meet the requirements set forth may receive nonathletics aid (but may not compete, practice or receive any athletics aid) at the certifying institution during their first academic year in residence.
You are not subject to the one-year residence requirement as transfer student if you meet one of the following exceptions;
a. The institution you are attending drops the sport in which you participate from
its intercollegiate program or never sponsored the sport on the intercollegiate level while you attended that institution, provided you never attended any other college that offered intercollegiate competition in that sport. You also are required to have earned at least a 2.000 grade-point average at the two-year college in order to use this exception. If you were a partial qualifier or non-qualifier, you are not permitted to use this exception;
OR
1. You never were recruited by the NCAA school (Note: If you need
assistance in determining whether you were recruited according to NCAA regulations, please contact the NCAA national office):
2. You have not received athletically related financial aid;
3. You have never practiced nor competed in collegiate athletics, except that you may have participated in preseason tryouts; and
4. You were eligible for admission to the Division II school before your initial enrollment at the institution.
b. Two-year Nonparticipation Exception. For a continuous two-year period
Immediately before the date on which the student begins participation (practice and/or competition), the student has neither practiced nor competed in the sport in intercollegiate competition or in organized non-collegiate amateur competition while enrolled as a full-time student-athlete in a collegiate institution. This two-year period does not include any time before initial collegiate enrollment.
If you are currently enrolled full-time at a four-year college, a college coach (or athletics staff member) from another four-year college may not make contact with you or your parents, directly or indirectly, without first obtaining the written permission of your institution’s athletics director (or an athletics administrator designated by the athletics director) to do so, regardless of who makes the initial contact. If permission is not granted, the second institution shall not encourage you to transfer, and in Division II, shall not provide financial assistance to you until you have attended the second institution for one academic year. If permission is granted to contact you, all applicable NCAA recruiting rules apply.
