On another subject, there has been confusion about a recent amendment that the conference made to its bylaws with respect to student athlete eligibility, with some reports indicating the conference has relaxed its academic standards. In fact, the opposite is true. I want to take this opportunity to clear up that confusion.</p>
As you may know, and some of this is more than a lot of you want to know, the NCAA revised its bylaws several years ago to eliminate the status known as partial qualifier, leaving only two classes of student athletes: qualifier and non qualifier, which are determined based on a student athlete's high school academic credentials.</p>
This spring, the conference revised its bylaws effective August the 1st of this year to maintain standards more stringent than the NCAA standards governing the enrollment of non qualifiers. In addition to modifying the labels describing a student athlete's initial eligibility status, the NCAA's initial eligibility index was extended to include the full range of possible standardized test scores. A 2.0 high school GPA was established as the minimum for a student athlete to be a qualifier, and the number of required high school core courses was increased, first from 13 to 14, and now to the new requirement of 16.</p>
It is inappropriate to associate this legislative change with any individual student athlete or prospective student athlete. Rather the revision is based on the need to update SEC rules to properly reflect new NCAA standards and to ensure accommodation of individuals challenged by learning disabilities.</p>
These revised bylaws, known to most of us as Proposal 1, make it clear that only a limited number of recruited student athletes who are non qualifiers at the time of enrollment at an SEC institution may become eligible to compete in the SEC and that each of those limited number of student athletes may become eligible only if he or she presents an average high school GPA of at least 2.0 as certified by the NCAA and at least 12 core courses. The institution submits a special report to the conference known as Proposal 9A, and a prospective student athlete who was a non qualifier and who does not meet these standards can enroll as a first year student in the SEC at an institution in our league, but cannot later become eligible for SEC competition.</p>
Another path to eligibility is available for such a student athlete, however. He or she can enroll in junior college and become eligible as a transfer student. For those interested in more, we have prepared a document comparing the old and new provision of SEC Bylaw 14.3, and that's available to you outside on the table after we finish.</p>