Dive Brief:
- NCAA President Mark Emmert told a group of university leaders they have a responsibility to prevent ‘mismatches,’ where an athlete’s intellectual capabilities prevent him or her from succeeding academically on their campuses.
- USA Today reports that Emmert spoke at the annual meeting of the APLU and said there has been a significant increase in the academic qualifications of their student bodies, but the academic profiles of athletes haven’t changed much.
- Emphasizing how few college athletes go pro, Emmert reminded university leaders that it is their responsibility to give them an opportunity to succeed in the classroom, taking meaningful courses toward a useful degree.
Dive Insight:
High school academic requirements for prospective Division I athletes are changing. To play at Division I schools, athletes will have to perform better in high school. This may slightly change the pool at the college level, but Emmert said schools should not recruit athletes with the bare minimum academic credentials, knowing that they will not be able to keep up on campus.
He discussed the need for athletes to take classes “with integrity,” not mentioning by name the scandal at the University of North Carolina, in which athletes were funneled into “paper courses,” that didn’t even meet but guaranteed them passing grades. Emmert said it was not the NCAA’s job to define quality courses but to ensure athletes had access to them.