College Credit and NCAA Sports

If your teen has their eye on playing college sports, there are some things you’ll want to know about how earning college credit impacts their program.

Who?

The National Collegiate Athletic Association oversees the eligibility rules for 24 sports across 3 divisions of college sports. As it relates to homeschooling, they have a (huge) guidebook they call a “toolkit” that assures you’re making the right choices for curriculum and high school credits. Before even considering NCAA sports, homeschooling parents have to be extra diligent that they’ve carefully read that guidebook!

Transcript

NCAA has specific homeschool transcript requirements, and those requirements go above and beyond what you might be planning for your teen. Your transcript must “include the ninth grade start date (month/day/year), course titles and grades awarded, units of credit for each course, grading scale with letter grades (if numeric scale is used), academic year in which the course was taken, graduation date (month/day/year), the student’s full name and complete home address and the handwritten signature of the home school administrator (the parent or person who organized, taught and evaluated the home school coursework).”

In every case EXCEPT for NCAA transcripts, it’s generally accepted that outside high school courses be recorded on the parent-generated high school transcript. In other words, if your teen attended a public school for 9th grade, those courses/credits would normally be brought over onto your homeschool transcript. In the case of NCAA, they very clearly do NOT allow this, and require two separate transcripts.

NOTE: The NCAA Eligibility Center’s policy does not permit using a weighted scale for home school coursework in an academic certification.

Core Courses

A core course is considered four-year college preparatory in the subject areas of English, math, (Algebra
1 or higher), natural or physical science, social science, foreign language, nondoctrinal religion
or philosophy.

CLEP

“Audited, CLEP or credit-by-exam classes are not NCAA core courses and cannot be used as part
of an academic certification.”

This means, in short, that you shouldn’t ever use the word “CLEP” on a high school transcript. Homeschooling for College Credit teaches this as a best practice, but in the case of NCAA it is exceptionally important because it will disqualify your student’s class!

To proceed, use your high school/college curriculum as usual. When your teen takes a CLEP exam (or other credit by exam) you shouldn’t include that on the transcript. Simply forward the CLEP score report/transcript to the college upon enrollment. The college will evaluate the exam and award/not award college credit. To emphasize, whether or not your teen takes a CLEP, fails a CLEP, passes a CLEP, or even thinks about CLEP – keep that off the high school transcript.

Dual Enrollment (from the NCAA Toolkit)

• The course(s) must appear on the home school transcript with grade and credit.
• The home school transcript must also include:
  • The name and location (city and state) of the two- or four-year college/university where the course(s) were completed.
  • The transcript from the two- or four-year college/university where the course(s) were completed must be sent to the Eligibility Center. This can be sent in by the home school administrator, the two or four-year college/university where the course(s) were completed, an umbrella program if used or the NCAA school recruiting the student-athlete.
• A core-course worksheet is not required for dual-enrollment coursework.
• The Administrator and Accordance Statement is required even if the home school coursework is exclusively dual enrollment completed through a college/university.

For dual-enrollment coursework completed at a two- or four-year college, no core-course worksheet is
required. For dual-enrollment coursework to be considered, the college course must appear on the home
school transcript with grade and credit. The course must also be clearly designated as a college course.
The home school transcript should indicate where the college course was completed, listing the name of
the two- or four-year school, as well as the location (both city and state).

Transfer Students

Students who took college courses in high school are NOT transfer students, but if your teen took college courses AFTER high school, your teen may be classified as a transfer student. Transfer students should review the NCAA Four Year Guide Packet for instructions.

Eligibility

Eligibility for NCAA sports begins after high school graduation the moment your teen is full-time enrolled as a degree seeking student. This is GREAT NEWS for NCAA-bound Homeschooling for College Credit students because

• a high school student is not a high school graduate
• a high school student is never classified as “degree seeking” by a college (even though they may earn a degree)
• a high school student is never classified as “full time college student” by a college (even though they may take more than 12 college credits per term)

This is very important for parents to understand, because it is a nuance specific to students who earn college credit during high school, and may not be well understood by people who may wrongly assume your teen CAN be full time or CAN be degree seeking while in high school.

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How Some HS4CC Families are Maxing Eligibility

“My son’s target school has advised him that his eligibility will not begin until he graduates high school. As a hockey player, he has been advised he can play four years from that time, even into his master’s degree program if he matriculates in as a junior. As long as he does not graduate from high school AND enroll as a degree seeking student at another University, he will be eligible for their freshman scholarships as well.” -Stacy M.

“My son entered with 50 DE credits, played D3 lacrosse and was eligible for 4 years of his sport.” -Cali O.

“Son attended a university, played a sport came in with two years of DE and continued on playing working in his masters.” -Nikki B.

“They (NCAA) make it look very complicated and overwhelming for homeschoolers. I assure you, it’s not that bad.” -Cathy F.

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