Registering with the NCAA

Are all student athletes, who hope to be recruited for a college sport, required to register with the NCAA? And what does this accomplish (for the mere price of $80…)?
Finally, I know rowing is not technically, for men, an NCAA sport, but I feel like I have read somewhere that you still need to register?

I do believe Rowing is an NCAA sport, but I think you only have to register for D1 and D2. My son was a D3 recruit and never registered.

D1 and D2 athletes have to register before they can take an OV or sign an NLI. The registration is to certify the test scores and gpa. The clearinghouse also makes sure that there is an official transcript from each high school, and that the recruit has all the required courses.

Ask the coaches if men’s crew requires registration.

It wasn’t the $70 (old price) that bothered me, it was paying the $70 and sending in three high school transcripts and test scores and having them lose the final transcript from the high school where she graduated. The woman at the NCAA said as an excuse, “Do you know how many documents we get?” Yes, but it’s your system and we PAY you to organize those documents!

The NCAA Clearinghouse also assures that the athlete meets all NCAA rules not only for grades and courses completed, but for amateur status. During our son’s first year playing Dll, a top team in their division was disqualified mid-season because NCAA determined that one of their players had played the sport professionally. Each game that athlete had participated in was not counted in the standings, and since he was one of their top players he had played in every game. The Clearinghouse is supposed to pick up these things before the athlete is cleared, so I don’t know what happened, but it sounds like he probably did not fill out the forms honestly and they caught him.