Suit challenges NCAA minimum SAT rules

A non-profit law firm filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association last week, charging that the NCAA's new SAT requirements for student-athletes are racist. The NCAA also released statistics showing that the graduation rate for African American student-athletes has increased since minimum SAT requirements were instituted in 1986. AndrZ Dennis, a lawyer with the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (TLPJ) -- which filed the suit -- said he does not think that SAT scores should eliminate students from athletic eligibility. "The NCAA's minimum test score requirement has discriminated against hundreds, if not thousands, of African American student-athletes," he said. NCAA Chief Operating Officer Dan Boggan countered that the lawsuit "is advocating a return to the bad, old days when student-athletes could spend four years in athletics and [leave] not only with no diploma but without any real education at all." The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on behalf of former Philadelphia high school students Tai Kwan Cureton and Leatrice Shaw, who graduated 27th and 5th, respectively, from Simon Gratz High School. Both students were recruited heavily by Division I athletic programs until they failed to achieve the NCAA's minimum SAT score, which barred them from competing in Division I as freshmen. They now play for Division III schools. TLPJ questions whether the NCAA's new SAT cut-off scores -- part of new requirements known as Proposition 16 -- violate Title IV of the Civil Rights Act by disproportionately hurting African Americans. Under Proposition 16 -- which went into effect in August 1996 -- a student with a high school grade point average of at least 2.5 on a 4.0 scale must score at least 820 on the SAT to be eligible to compete in. The rule employs a sliding scale, with higher test scores required for those with lower grade. Hence, a student with a 2.0 average is required to score at least 1010 on the SAT. The national average SAT score is 1013. African Americans score an 856 average. Penn, whose student-athletes score higher than the national average on the SAT, is not affected by the NCAA's regulations. The average SAT score for students entering the University in the Class of 2000 was 1358. Proposition 16 is a more stringent revision of the earlier Proposition 48. Much of current debate revolves around the effects of Proposition 48. TLPJ argues that the NCAA's reports show that 47 percent of African American student-athletes who entered and graduated college prior to the implementation of Proposition 48 would have been ineligible to compete during their freshman year because of the test score requirement. Only 8 percent of the graduating white athletes from that same freshman class would have been ineligible based on their test scores. An NCAA report found African Americans made up 27.3 percent of student-athletes entering schools in 1985, falling to 23.6 percent in 1986. But by 1989, the numbers recovered to 25 percent. The study also showed a rise in graduation rates among African American male student-athletes -- from 34 percent of the freshman class in 1985, before Proposition 48, to 41 percent of 1986 freshman and 43 percent of 1989 freshman. But Montey Neill, associate director of the group FairTest, said graduation rates do not tell the full story. "It remains true that there are blacks who deserve to be [competing] who aren't," he said. "[The NCAA's statistics] are not responsive to our issue." Tom Ewing, a spokesperson for the Educational Testing Service, which administers the SAT, said the issue is not only about the test. He said the lawsuit criticizes the way the NCAA is using the SAT as a cut-off rather than as a more general measure of ability. "We go to great lengths to make the SAT bias-free," Ewing added. TLPJ attorney Adele Kimmell said the lawsuit intends to reduce the influence of SAT's in eligibility decisions. "You can increase graduation [and eligibility] rates without discriminating," she said