You've reached the spring semester of your junior year in high school, and are interested in attending a Division 1 or 2 college or university and participate in athletics as a freshman. But have you registered with the NCAA Eligibility Center?

 The NCAA Eligibility Center

What is this you ask? The NCAA Eligibility Center is an agency that certifies prospective student-athletes as eligible to play collegiate sports at the Division 1 or 2 level, and you must be registered with and be certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center in order to be eligible to participate.

The NCAA Eligibility Center determines your eligibility (based on grades, completed core course requirements, ACT/SAT scores, etc.). When colleges request information on your eligibility, the Eligibility Center makes a certification decision about you and reports that decision directly to the colleges. The Eligibility Center is very important as you can see, because they alone tell the colleges whether you are, or are not, eligible to participate at the Division 1 or 2 level. If they say you are not eligible, colleges will pass right by you and move on to the next recruit.

 There are three types of eligibility determinations:

1) Certification of eligibility for expense-paid campus visits

2) Preliminary certification of eligibility to participate in college sports. (This determination indicates you appear likely to meet all NCAA requirements, but have not yet reached graduation.)

3) Final Certification. (This determination indicates proof of graduation has been received.)

 The NCAA Eligibility Center only provides eligibility certification results about student-athletes, it does not act as a recruiting service, placement agency, or an admissions office. The Eligibility Center tracks your grades, test scores and completion status on core classes required for graduation. If a student-athletes has not fulfilled these requirements, and has not received eligibility certification, they will not be allowed to play at the NCAA Division 1 or 2 level.

 To reach the NCAA Eligibility Center, go to: http://www.ncaaclearinghouse.org or http://eligibilitycenter.org.

To register with the NCAA Eligibility Center you must complete and sign the Student Release Form (SRF). The SFR authorizes each high school you've attended to send your transcripts, test scores, proof of graduation and and other necessary academic information to the Eligibility Center, as well as any college or university that requests it.

 There is a fee to register. You can complete the SRF on-line, but it requires a credit card. When you print your registration form, you will receive two copies. Be sure to give both copies to a your high school guidance counselor. The counselor will send the first copy, along with an official copy of your high school transcript, to the Eligibility Center, and keep one copy in your high school file. After graduation senior year, and before school closes for the summer, your high school must send the Eligibility Center a copy of your final transcript that confirms your graduation and contains final grades and credits, along with the second copy of the form. You can not send your own transcript information to the clearinghouse, only your high school can. For reasons of security, the Eligibility Center will not accept faxed transcripts. Track the progress of your file on-line or by calling the Eligibility Center hotline. As with most things in life, it is up  to you to ensure everything is filed on-time and that your eligibility is progressing as needed. Don't leave things to chance, stay involved and stay on top of your status. In the end, you'll be glad you did.

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