NCAA legislation aims to curb ‘diploma mills’

INDIANAPOLIS – High schools and prep schools with questionable academic standards will now have to prove their legitimacy to the NCAA if they want their student-athletes to be eligible when they enter college.

On Thursday, the board of directors gave the NCAA unprecedented authority to investigate so-called “diploma mills” and the ability to question individual transcripts that could lead to freshman ineligibility. The penalties take effect this fall.

“This in no way is an indictment on all of our secondary schools because we know the vast, vast majority do a good job,” said Kevin Lennon, vice president of membership services.

The new rules allow NCAA officials to visit questionable secondary schools while the NCAA clearinghouse, which certifies first-year student-athlete eligibility, can now question any records that appear unusual.

SAT and ACT test scores and test dates must also now be reported directly to the clearinghouse, and the NCAA plans to hire four new staff members to help with enforcement.

But NCAA president Myles Brand, the driving force in the academic reform movement, acknowledged some incoming freshmen may get a reprieve if they did not do anything intentionally wrong.

“If someone is in a gray area, and not a clear area, we will look very carefully not to unfairly punish that individual – especially in the first year,” Brand said during the 45-minute conference call. “We may treat some individuals as partial qualifiers where they can receive scholarship money but cannot participate. In the future, that will not be the case.”

Confronting diploma mills became a top priority for NCAA officials after a New York Times report on University High School, a correspondence school in Miami. University High had no classes or instructors and operated almost without supervision, allegedly offering high school degrees to students with poor grades for $399.

A University High official told the Times in December it was closing at the end of 2005.

The fallout, however, has continued. Three schools, including University, have been removed from the NCAA’s list of acceptable institutions.

NCAA officials believe some schools avoided detection by providing misleading or inaccurate answers to an old form. The new guidelines permit the NCAA to pose more thorough questions to those schools and visit them to ensure students meet regularly with teachers.

A list of out-of-compliance schools is expected to be made public in June or July.