Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 28, 1992 TAG: 9201280051
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
NCAA ACTION PUTS MORE IN TECH'S ACADEMIC LEAGUE
There won't be popped champagne corks or a confetti parade in Blacksburg, but the strengthened academic requirements for freshman eligibility approved this month by the NCAA may help Virginia Tech's recruiting.Hokies coaches, especially in football and men's basketball, long have said Tech's three-math requirement for admission - one more math course than many schools demand - is a recruiting handcuff. The NCAA's decision to increase the number of core classes necessary for freshman eligibility from 11 to 13 with the extra two classes coming from English, math or science could soften the sting of Tech's standards.
The new requirements are effective with the 1995-96 school year. They will require athletes to have at least a 2.5 grade-point average in the core classes (up from 2.0) or score 900 or better on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (up from 700) in order to play as college freshmen.
"I think any kind of strengthening of academic standards is a move up toward where we are, rather than continually expecting universities like ours to bend downward," said Tech President James McComas, who spent a week at the recent NCAA Convention in Anaheim, Calif.
Tech recruiting coordinator Sharon McCloskey said that because many high schools already require four years of English, most recruits will add the two core courses from math or science.
Tech requires freshmen to have passed Algebra I, Algebra II and geometry. McCloskey said the new NCAA rule specifies the recruits' math courses must be advanced algebra-based, "so it probably will help us" by increasing the number of prospects available to Tech.
Tech's admissions director, David Bousquet, agrees.
"It brings [the NCAA] in line with where we've been for a while," Bousquet said.
Tech's major-sport coaches - basketball's Bill Foster and football's Frank Beamer - are wary of the impact of the new standards despite the fact that the first group to be affected is the current high school freshman class.
Foster said he fears recruiting might be harder for Tech the first few years the new standards are in effect.
"Any time they go up with standards, it reduces the number of players in the recruiting pool," he said. "A lot of the kids that don't make it, they'll go to junior college. Eighty percent of JUCO kids can't get in here."
Foster cited a "trickle-down" effect. He said schools from the best conferences - Big East, ACC, Big Eight - will have the best shot at the best players; if there are fewer eligible prospects, that leaves fewer leftovers for schools from lesser leagues.
"It puts some people on a level playing field with us, but on the other hand it reduces the number of kids to recruit," Foster said.
Foster did say he thinks increasing the number of core classes should help prospects do better on the SAT.
Beamer said the big jump in required GPA and SAT score surprised many coaches, and he agreed with Foster that it might narrow the pool of eligible players. But, he said, he doesn't expect to encounter a nation of ineligible freshmen.
"Players and people respond to what you require of them," he said. "The more people work toward that, the more people will meet that in '95 than [meet it] now."
The new GPA and SAT standards don't seem daunting to Tech based on the backgrounds of some recent Hokies recruits. The Hokies' 1990-91 freshman football class had a GPA average of 2.42 and an average SAT score of 843; the '90-91 basketball freshmen had a GPA average of 2.63 and an average SAT score of 800.
Beamer seemed to welcome the core-class increase.
"My main concern at Virginia Tech is that I'm working at the same level as the people I'm counted on to beat," Beamer said. "These adjustments probably bring it closer to that."
Two glitches remain, Beamer said. One is the difficulty for transferring junior-college players to be eligible to play at Tech; the other is schools that will continue to accept Proposition 48 non-qualifiers.
"With the initial people on scholarship, we're on the same level," he said. "If a [Proposition 48 non-qualifier] goes somewhere and sits out a year, or goes to a junior college, I'm not sure we'd stay even there."
Bousquet said there is "no minimum as such" of transferable hours for a junior-college student to be admitted to Tech. Foster and Beamer, he said, are referring to the fact that a transferring junior-college athlete needs 24 acceptable credits in order to play at Tech.
The NCAA's new academic standards also include an adjustment to the satisfactory-progress rule. The new rule says that of the 24 credit hours athletes must pass each school year to remain eligible, no more than six can be earned in summer school.
That won't have a major impact at Tech, academic advising coordinator Jerry Via said.
"Most of ours would be OK," he said. "We'd almost never have someone who needed six or more hours to get right."
Those interviewed at Tech agreed on one point about the increased standards: Much responsibility falls on high schools. Bousquet said that, because of Proposition 48, prospects have been taking the SAT earlier and more often and are more aware of the GPA requirement.
"So much of it gets back to the type of guidance [high school students get]," Bousquet said. "You see high schools working harder to make sure students understand the need to do well in high school."
If the new requirements have the intended effect, Bousquet said, colleges will begin seeing better-qualified student-athletes who have better chances of graduating.