Court decision on NCAA academic rules sparks controversy

A federal judge in Philadelphia yesterday denied an NCAA request to delay the court-ordered elimination of freshman eligibility standards, plunging the world of collegiate athletics into a state of uncertainty. U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Buckwalter ruled earlier this month that the old regulations -- which required student-athletes to have a minimum score on the SAT or ACT standardized test score on a sliding scale linked to the student's grade point average -- unfairly penalized minority students. The NCAA asked to stay the ruling until it could be appealed to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Otherwise, officials would not have enough time to ensure a smooth transition to different standards, they said. "With the court's denial of our request for [a] stay, our membership is left with many unknowns about how to address eligibility standards," NCAA President Cedric Dempsey said in a statement released yesterday. Because of the ruling, a lost year of eligibility could be restored to athletes who were not allowed to compete as freshmen because of the standards, including Temple's Mark Karcher and Drexel's Petrick Sanders, both basketball players. The decision is unlikely to affect Penn's athletic program or any other in the Ivy League, since it has its own requirements, according to Ivy League Executive Director Jeff Orleans. Still, the eight Ivies "will participate in their discussions," Orleans said. The decision will have a huge impact, though, on most of the 302 Division I schools, especially with the recruiting season reaching its culmination over the next three weeks. "I don't know what this will mean to us," said Joanne Epps, Temple's NCAA representative. "[The lack of a guideline] means disarray." "[There will be] a whole lot of collaborating between institutions," Epps added. The NCAA Division I Board of Directors will determine its next step in a few weeks, according to a statement released by the NCAA yesterday. "[We will decide] whether to utilize current grade point average and core course standards minimum academic rules, adopt interim legislation or move forward with no current standardized rules in place while appealing the case," the statement said. The NCAA will seek a stay from the Circuit Court and will file an appeal of Buckwalter's decision in the next few days. Buckwalter declared the SAT and ACT minimum score requirement, also known as Proposition 16 and formerly called Proposition 48, illegal under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Buckwalter cited an internal NCAA memo that showed that "African-American and low-income student-athletes have been disproportionately impacted" by the policy. The original form of the rules was adopted in 1986 to boost the graduation rates of student-athletes, but Buckwalter said there was not necessarily a link between standardized test scores and graduation rates. The previous standards required at least an 820 on the Scholastic Assessment Test and at least a 2.5 GPA in order for a student to compete in the freshman year. The suit was originally filed in 1997 and includes as plaintiffs two graduates of North Philadelphia's Simon Gratz High School. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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