<p>My son is currently a senior. We were planning on him graduating this May. However, due to unforeseeable circumstances, he was not able to complete all of his credits this year. In addition, he is not academically ready for college yet. We homeschool, so we are planning on him graduating next year.</p>
<p>He registered with the NCAA last year, and they said he has been pre-qualified. I asked him what would happen to his eligibility if he does not graduate till December or even next year. They said since he is pre-qualified, it will not affect his eligibility. He could play 4 years in college even if he didn't graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>I had heard that the eligibility clock starts ticking from the year that you enter as a freshman, and you have 8 semesters to graduate and that you can only take a semester off after graduating or you will lose a year of eligibility. If this is the case, then it would seem like even if my son doesn't graduate, he will still lose eligibility since his time has started ticking already.</p>
<p>My son is not a high recruit in his sport, so he is looking at smaller NAIA and D3 schools. However, we do want to keep our options open. So, I was wondering how extending his graduation will affect his eligibility at D1 or D2 schools.</p>
<p>His eligibility will not start until he is actually on campus, and signs the NCAA paperwork. Also, he has 5 years to complete 4 seasons. So he could compete freshman, year, redshirt sophomore year, and still have three years left on the clock. Also, I wouldn’t worry about having a fifth year at the high school level. I know a few athletes who actually took a year off after high school to keep training, before college. They said (and it showed) that the extra year helped them mature, so there were better able to handle the rigors of a student-athlete lifestyle.</p>
<p>My son plays tennis. I have heard starting this year, for tennis, students can only take off a semester and not a full year. If they take more than a semester then they will lose one year of eligibility. They are doing this because there are so many older foreign athletes that come to compete in America. This is what I am wondering about.</p>
<p>Taking off a semester, and Red-Shirting are two different things. As it sounds, taking off a semester means the athlete isn’t actually taking classes. Redshirting means they are still attending and taking classes, but not elligible that season to compete.</p>
<p>Also, neither of these situation apply until your son actually sets foot on campus and begins to take classes. So having him take an extra year to graduate high school is still ok. The clock begins when he begins taking classes at the institution for which he is competing.</p>
<p>How common is it for students to take 5 years to graduate high school? Is this done? When I talked to NCAA, they didn’t seem to think it was strange.</p>
<p>Around here (in New England) it’s very common especially involving prep schools. A lot of students repeat a grade when they enter prep school so these kids have been in high school 5 years. In another variant a lot of students trying to get recruited after they finish a 4 year public high school so a PG year at a prep school (PG = post grad) so these kids also have had 5 years of high school.</p>
<p>Oh I didn’t know that about the east coast. So, I guess my son taking five years in high school is OK. I am wondering if I have misunderstood the rule about a student having to finish high school within 8 semesters of starting freshman year.</p>
<p>I have been looking into something similar and actually I believe NCAA rules have made some recent changes. Their websited does say high school must be completed in 8 semesters and only one extra core course can be counted after that time. My child is only a freshman taking distance learning courses but the NCAA has disallowed the classes from two online high schools because of not enough teacher student interaction. So now I am also worried about completing in 4 years time. I heard the same thing about the older foreign students - how exactly do they think they will get them to follow this rule? In tennis I hear they even try the pro circuit a few years before dropping out and grabbing a US scholarship!</p>
<p>I came across this post as I was researching NCAA eligibility for my son who happens to also play tennis. I don’t think you have been given the correct advice based on what I’ve been told by the NCAA themselves. I suggest you call them directly.
They are very strict. One rule is that high school must be finished in 4 years so your son will not be able to take 5 years to complete high school. This is atleast my understanding.
Also, since he was homeschooled, you need to make sure that the core courses have been NCAA approved. My son is currently enrolled in an online program - university of Missouri High school and they have a list of pre-approved online courses and my son can take all his NCAA core corses there with no worry. I find the program to be excellent and I really like the cost which is much less than many of the other online programs I’ve come across. I also like that it’s a high school run by a university. You can go to the NCAA website and see a list of approved courses.
Anyway, I’ve called the NCAA directly on many occasions and found them to be very helpful.</p>
<p>Read NCAA bylaw 14.2.4.2 or therabouts. It addresses grace years and the period within which a player needs to start college from the time he/she begins and/or graduates High School. The rule also addresses the impact of not beginning college within the requisite time frame.</p>
<p>We homeschooled our son and he took five years to complete high school. We decided his sophomore year that he needed more time. Ultimately, he went to a D3 school so we didn’t finish the NCAA eligibility process so I can’t say for sure what would have happened. However, my understanding was that we could only count the last four years for high school but you are allowed to count a high school school class that was started in eighth grade which is very common for people taking Algebra 1. Make sure he has core classes for his fifth year and use course titles listed by the NCAA. In my son’s case, his Global Systems Science class become Environmental Science, his semester of classic literature and semester of grammar become 9th Grade Language Arts (or whatever the actual title was.) Also, keep track of text books and their isbn number, tracking them down later is not fun.</p>
<p>I think a question might concern where he plays tennis. Does he play for the HS team? I think you are only allowed to compete 4 seasons. If he is competing in his 5th year that might be a problem. Red-shirting can also occur in HS. I think this is why you see some kids repeating 8th grade (so they can be bigger and stronger than competitors in HS). I do think kids who go to prep schools can compete and it doesn’t count against them. Not sure of the rationale there…</p>
<p>I’m curious what he has done that makes you think he is ready to play at college level? Has he taken the SAT’s? They are part of qualifying also. They are the reason our HS quarterback is possibly going to prep school and not starting college at D2 or D1AA</p>