Coaches and Program Administrators,

I wanted to let you know of a couple of NCAA rule changes/updates.
Please pass this information on to your athletes who might be
looking to row in college.

First the NCAA Clearinghouse has changed its name (and location:
moving to NCAA Headquarters in Indianapolis) to the "NCAA
Eligibility Center."

The primary website is:
https://web1.ncaa.org/eligibilitycenter/common/. Furthermore, the
NCAA has added to its review of transcripts and college tests
(SAT/ACT) a new requirement that the student fill out a
questionnaire dealing with amateurism.

Furthermore the students are required to be registered with the
Eligibility Center to go on an official visit. This is easily done
by filling out the form and sending in the registration fee. The
final review of the students' eligibility to row in college is done
when the students either graduates high school or sends in a
transcript and test score early that met the "early academic
qualifier" standards.

A quick review of standards for Eligibility for DI and DII can be
found here:
https://web1.ncaa.org/eligibilitycenter/general/f3_message.html#

I highly recommend printing out the pdf file at the link on that
page entitled
"Division I and II initial-eligibility standards" and passing that
out to all your students – that will help them know the requirements
for college athletics including the number of core courses (math,
english, science, etc.) and GPA and SAT/ACT scores for DI and DII
athletics.

Second please remind your junior and senior athletes that DI and DII
coaches can no longer text, IM or `Facebook' and MySpace message
high school students. This was sparked by prospective football
athletes having $500 phone bills due to the number of texts they
were receiving from college coaches. Please make sure that the
students are checking their emails as this along with snail mail
will continue to be some of the primary sources of communication.
Also, let the student athletes know that although college coaches
can only call once a week, they (the student athlete) can call any
number of times.

I hope this helps you and the students. If you have any questions
please email me at gartin@... or call 954-249-3409.

Thanks and have a great fall season!

John Gartin
Nova Southeastern University