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Tutors Often Complete School Work for Athletes
Author: Scarinci Hollenbeck, LLC
Date: January 1, 2014
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College athletics are a major business. During the 2011-12 academic year, the University of Texas football team brought in $103.8 million in revenues, which equated to $77.9 million in profit.
With so much money to be made, there is a lot of pressure to keep the best players eligible. As a result, tutors may be pushed to complete school work for athletes so they receive qualifying grades.
The University of North Carolina recently experienced a scandal in which athletes received added academic benefits. Students were given unauthorized grade changes, forged faculty signatures on grade rolls and limited or no class time to help keep them academically eligible.
NCAA Academic Code
The NCAA has specific academic standards that athletes need to comply with in order to stay eligible, which can put pressure on institutions to provide special aid.
Athletes must graduate high school and complete a minimum of 16 core courses for Division I or II athletics. Students must maintain a minimum grade-point average of 2.3 in these core courses and an amateurism certification needs to be received from the NCAA Eligibility Center.
To remain eligible, Division I athletes need to complete 40 percent of the coursework required for a degree by the end of the second year, 60 percent by the end of the third year and 80 percent by the end of their fourth year. This prevents athletes from skipping out on class and using college as just a springboard to the pros and not for academics as well. At the end of year five, students must graduate or forfeit athletic-related financial aid. Each semester athletes also need to earn at least six credit hours to be eligible for the following term.
The NCAA hasn’t budged on many rules – i.e. athlete compensation – so it would be a surprise if many changes to academics came in the future. However, if these scandals don’t stop, the NCAA may have to consider action.
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