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UAH Athletics

OFFICIAL SITE OF THE UAH CHARGERS

NCAA Eligibility

National and Regional Affiliations:

The UAH Athletic Department has membership in NCAA Division II (17 Sports) and Division I (one sport). Fourteen of the 17 DII teams are members of the Gulf South Conference. Men’s Lacrosse is  a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Division I Men’s Ice Hockey is a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Two are independent. All varsity athletics teams are governed by NCAA and their appropriate conference legislation.

Determination of Athletics Eligibility:

Student Responsibility:

Student-athletes are responsible for their own eligibility. Eligibility is certified in the fall by the Athletics Department through the Director of Athletics Compliance (DoAC) and the eligibility team comprised of the DoAC, Registrar, and Faculty Athletic Representative. Before participating in intercollegiate competition during each academic year, NCAA member institutions are required to request that student-athletes sign a statement reporting information related to eligibility, recruitment, financial aid, and amateur status. Student-athletes also sign Buckley Amendment releases for drug testing and the use of this information for eligibility purposes. UAH has students sign these statements electronically through the NCAA Forms portal. Student-athletes will receive an email to their UAH email address around the middle to end of the summer prior to each academic year, with directions of connection to the portal. Student-athletes A number (UAH student ID) are their pins. Accordingly, student-athletes should not jeopardize collegiate eligibility through involvement in violations of NCAA legislation. A short summary of eligibility through involvement in violations of NCAA legislation. A short summary of eligibility requirements is on the UAH Athletics website. Additional information can be found at the NCAA website at www.ncaa.org, including copies of the DI and DII NCAA manuals. Student athletes who are considering professional athletic careers can obtain a copy of the booklet, “A Career in Professional Sports” by writing to the NCAA National Office at PO Box 6222, Indianapolis, IN 46202-6222. Student-athletes must be careful not to jeopardize their athletics eligibility and should consult their coach and/or the Director of Athletic Compliance before any involvement with professional teams.

Below are some situations that may impact a prospective student-athlete (PSA) or student-athlete’s amateur status.

  1. Takes or has taken pay, or accepted the promise of pay, in any form in that sport;

  2. Accepts prize money based on performance/finish at a competition

  3. Has entered into an agreement of any kind to compete in professional athletics or to negotiate a professional contract, regardless of legality;

  4. Use of a recruiting agency, scholarship agent or scouting service

  5. Requests that the individual’s name be placed on the draft list of a professional sports organization (Note: In basketball, once you become a student-athlete at an NCAA school, you may enter a professional league’s draft one time without jeopardizing your eligibility provided that you declare your intention to return to college within 30 days after the draft);

  6. Had directly or indirectly used athletic skill for pay in any form;

  7. Signs or has ever signed a contract or commitment or any kind to play professional athletics, regardless of its legal enforceability or the consideration (if any) received;

  8. Plays or has ever played on any professional athletic team:

  9. Receives or has received, directly or indirectly, a salary, reimbursement of expenses (except as permitted on one visit prior to enrollment) or any other form of financial assistance based upon athletic skill or participation;

  10. Participates on an outside sports team and receives, directly or indirectly, a salary, division or split of surplus, incentive payment or award, gratuity or comparable compensation, or allowance for education expense(s) or expense allowance other than actual and necessary travel and meal expenses for practice and games; 

  11. During regular enrollment in a collegiate institution, tries out (i.e., practices but does not participate against outside competition) with a professional sports organization during any part of the regular academic year at the individual’s institution;

  12. Agrees or has ever agreed to be represented by an agent or an organization in the marketing of the individual’s athletic ability or reputation;

  13. Is placed for compensation by an individual, agency, or organization in a collegiate institution as a recipient of institutional, athletically related financial aid;

  14. Various other competition with and/or against professionals, case by case basis.

  15. Promotes or endorses a commercial product or service

THESE RULES ARE SUMMARIES AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE. FOR EXACT WORDING CONSULT AN NCAA MANUAL. In addition, please check with the Director of Athletic Compliance as there are additional rules for DII and DI with may apply to individual situations.

 

An individual SHALL NOT be eligible for intercollegiate athletics IN ANY SPORT if the individual:

  1. Agrees or has ever agreed to be represented generally, rather than with regard to a specific sport, by an agent or an organization in the marketing of the individual’s athletic ability or reputation; (for DII, may apply only subsequent to enrolling in college for the first time after high school.)

  2. Subsequent to becoming a student-athlete in a collegiate institution, accepts remuneration for or permits the use of an individual’s name or picture to directly advertise, recommend or promote the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind. 

Initial Academic Certification / Eligibility:

As a first time student-athlete and each year afterwards at an NCAA institution, student-athletes must be certified for academics and amateurism for their designated sport prior to any competition. Generally, as a freshman, student-athletes may be permitted to practice and compete in intercollegiate athletics if qualified according to the NCAA Bylaw 14.3; are accepted for “regular student” admission (or qualify for the exception per 14.1.6.1.1 and have institutional approval); enrolled as a full-time student; and continue to meet satisfactory progress requirements of maintaining a GPA that qualifies as “good standing” with the University. Conditional/probational admitted students are considered regularly admitted students, however, they may have additional requirements per university policy and should consult with the director of Athletic Compliance if they have been admitted in this category. Student-athletes must make progress toward a degree and declare a Program of Study (POS) at the required time (prior to your fifth full time semester). From this point, as soon as a POS is declared, the credits used to meet the satisfactory progress requirements, or progress towards degree, must be degree credit toward the student-athlete’s designated degree program. (Division I student-athletes have additional requirements.) Not more than two (2) hours of physical education activity classes can will be used for progress towards degree, and certain academic disciplines may have stricter requirements for HPE. If a Plan of Study REQUIRES more, the student-athlete should seek approval first by the Director of Athletic Compliance before assuming the credit can be used for progress to degree.

The Director of Athletic Compliance serves as a liaison between the Athletic Department and the University. The responsibility of the DoAC is to evaluate the academic eligibility of all student-athletes. This includes GPA’s, terms of full-time enrollment, and full-time status. Eligibility status is then reported to the Director of Athletics through the Eligibility List. The eligibility status of all student-athletes is approved by the Registrar, FAR, and AD. It is the responsibility of the student-athlete to become and remain eligible.

Transfer Student Eligibility:

The area of transfer student eligibility is complex, requiring an individual determination related to the specifics of each case. The following is a general description of the regulations, which are applied to transfer student-athlete for Division II sports. Contact must be made with the head coach, Director of Athletics, and Director of Athletic Compliance to get a ruling on the eligibility status of any individual student-athlete. An official transcript of all college courses taken will be needed for evaluation. The evaluation process may take some time. Division I student-athletes will have stricter guidelines. All student-athletes must be cleared through the NCAA Eligibility Center. In most cases, transferring student-athletes must be certified for academics and amateurism. In some situations, only certification for amateurism is necessary of the student-athlete has served at least one year of residency, which is a full academic year, at a collegiate institution. 

A transfer student from a four-year institution, as a rule, is not eligible until the student-athlete has fulfilled a residency requirement of one full academic year in which the student has been registered full-time. Exceptions to the rule must be treated individually (as per NCAA Bylaw 14.5.5 et al).

In summary, as a basic guideline, but not meant to replace NCAA rules, the following generally will apply. For DII a transfer student from a two-year institution, as a rule, is not eligible until the student-athlete has fulfilled a residency requirement of one full academic year in which the student-athlete has been registered full time, unless the student-athlete meets an exception. In many cases, a transfer student from a junior college is not eligible unless the student has graduated or presented a minimum of 12 semester hours of transferable degree credit per each semester of full-time enrollment with a cumulative GPA of 2.200, and has spent at least three semesters of residence at the junior college, and has transferred in 6 hours of English, 3 hours of math, and 3 hours of natural or physical science. Other requirements may be met depending on the student’s status with the NCAA Eligibility Center. For DI, two-year institution transfer students must be present transferable degree credit averages, a minimum of 12 per semester of full time attendance, with a 2.50 GPA minimum in those credit hours.

If an institution drops an intercollegiate sport, a student-athlete there has a possibility to transfer immediately using a waiver process to be eligible for competition in that sport provided all institutional and national eligibility requirements are met.

A transfer student who has attended several schools (multiple transfers) requires specific interpretation.

Division I transfers from a 4-year institution will have to serve one full year of residency unless exceptions apply.

Length of Time of Athletics Participation:

In NCAA Division II, you may compete during four academic years or eight full-time semesters. This must be completed within 10 semesters of full-time enrollment. Summer semesters do not count towards the 10 semesters. A student-athlete may be granted an additional year of competition for reasons of “hardship”, which is defined as incapacity resulting from injury or illness under the following criteria:

  1. It occurs in one of the four seasons of intercollegiate completion (includes scrimmages) and;

  2. It occurs when the student-athlete has not participated in more than 30% or more than two of the institution’s scheduled or competed events in your sport, whichever is greater, and resulted in a medical inability to complete for the remainder of the season.

  3. The injury occurred in the first half of the season.

  4. It is determined by a qualified physician that the student-athlete is medically unable to participate.

  5. Contemporaneous medical documentation is provided.

All requests for hardship and other 5th year opportunities must be directed to the head coach who will make a recommendation to the Director of Athletics. A Buckley Amendment Waiver must be signed by the student athletes in order to submit waivers, along with other statements by the trainer and attending physician.

In NCAA Division I, a student who is qualifier has four seasons in a five-year time period from their first date of full-time college enrollment. The time frame begins with the first date of initial collegiate enrollment. A non or partial qualifier may have less. 

Two Sport Student-Athletes:

The following is UAH athletics policy regarding two-sport athletes:

  1. If a student-athlete receives no financial aid in either sport, the student cannot participate in the second sport until the first sport season (including playoffs) ends;

  2. If a student-athlete participates in more than one sport, but receives aid from only one, participation is restricted to only the sport providing aid during the season, including all practices and post-season play, except with the permission of the first and second coach to participate in other sports;

  3. If a student-athlete participates and receives aid from more than one sport, regardless of the level of funding, the student cannot participate in the second sport season until the first sport season (including playoffs) ends, unless the coaches of the first and second agree that the student can participate in both sports in overlapping seasons.

  4. A student-athlete may participate only up to 20 hours per week in season for both sports and/ or eight hours out of season in both sports for conditioning and/or skill instruction.

  5. Determination of which sport is sport one and two is based on NCAA rules and regulations. See the compliance office for determination if necessary.

Maintaining Eligibility (DII Requirements for Progress towards a Degree, (NCAA Bylaw 14.4))

A Student-athlete must adhere to the following starting August 1, 2016:

  1. All student-athletes must be in good academic standing and enrolled full time.

  2. All student-athletes who have triggered the need for satisfactory progress, or progress towards a degree, must earn a minimum of 24 semester hours of degree credit during a fall-to-fall time period. No more than six of these 24 semester hours may be earned during the summer to count toward this 24. A minimum of NINE semester hours must be earned the semester prior to competition, according to the NCAA ruler. For those student-athletes in the fifth full-time semester or beyond, the 24 semester hours of degree credit must go towards their declared major. The major used for this determination is the one they have declared prior to the first day of classes for any one semester. All student-athletes that are entering their fifth semester of full-time college enrollment must declare a major prior to that first day of their fifth semester. The declaration is obtained by processing a plan of study with the proper academic authorities in the appropriate college. A copy of this plan must be given to the Director of Athletic Compliance. To be in academic good standing, a student-athlete must maintain a grade point average of 2.0 for all course work at UAH, articulated transfer credit including Advanced Placement, CLEP, International Baccalaureate, and all courses on the student-athlete transcript.

  3. Only degree credit earned with an acceptable grade for the declared major will be used for progress toward degree in the fifth full time semester on, except in the situation of English Composition I&II, where a minimum of C’s must be earned for degree credit.

  4. Up to two hours of HPE activity classes will be used for progress toward degree, except in the case of required activity classes in the major of Kinesiology in the College of Education.

  5. A student athlete may declare a minor. Up to six hours  in the Fall and six hours in the Spring can be counted toward progress toward degree for minors declared and on file prior to the start of the semester

  6. Good academic standing is defined by UAH and NCAA rules and regulations. University policy for GAS can be found at https://catalog.uah.edu/undergrad/policies-procedures/academic-achievement/.

Additional requirements for Division I: student-athletes must have earned at least 90% of the grade point average needed for graduation prior to entering their third year of full-time college enrollment, and 95% of the grade point average needed for graduation student-athletes must earn a minimum of 40% of their declared major degree credit prior to entering their fourth year of full-time enrollment, 60% prior to their fourth, and 80% prior to their fifth. This is the 40/60/80 percent rule. This does not preclude UAH’s academic good standing policies. The DI Student Athlete must also be in Academic Good Standing according to UAH policies.

  1. A student-athlete who changed his or her designated degree program may comply with the progress toward degree requirements if (a) the change in programs is documented appropriately by the institution’s academic authorities, (b) the credits earned prior to the change are acceptable towards the degree previously sought, and (c) the credits earned from the time of the change are acceptable toward the new desired degree;

  2. A student-athlete who is involved in a cooperative-education program at UAH must meet the above requirements;

  3. During any semester of competition, you must be registered as a full-time student (12 semester hours of classes or greater for undergraduates). If you drop a class during the semester of competition and become a part-time student, you are no longer eligible to practice and compete. You may also lose your athletic scholarship and your team may forfeit and/all contests in which you participated. Do not drop a class without approval from your head coach and the Director of Athletic Compliance.

Before and during the season of competition, the Director of Athletic Compliance evaluates your eligibility as it relates to your GPA and progress toward a degree. The AD, Registrar and Faculty Athletic Representative must sign off on all eligibility.  Your average GPA and UAH GPA must meet the minimum requirements with 24 credit hours passed in the last academic year. You must inform the Director of Athletic Compliance of any changes you make that may affect your eligibility. Each student-athlete is responsible for maintaining his or her own eligibility.

Facts about registration, credit hours and GPA:

  1. During semesters of competition, you must be enrolled at UAH for a minimum of 12 credit hours, excluding courses repeated, except those in which you received an “F”, and to pass 24 hours during the academic year. Remedial courses not passed must be repeated. An academic year includes the fall and spring semesters. 

  2. All activity HPE classes use letter grades and count towards GPA. A maximum of 2 activity HPE credit hours count toward progress toward degree except in one instance kinesiology majors may be allowed more. Kinesiology majors should check with compliance for approval. 

  3. Some courses are credit/no credit. Check with instructor as to minimum grade you must receive for that course to be counted as credit. 

  4. Student-athletes must receive an acceptable grade in any class in their major to have the credit hours count toward satisfactory progress.

  5. According to University policy, if a course is repeated, the last grade in the class is the official grade for that class. For example, if the course was passed with a D, and repeated in the hopes of obtaining a C, and then the class was failed, the F is what stands as the official grade, and there is no longer any course credit for a previously passed class.

  6. Credit is only given one time for a course. If a course is repeated and passed both times, the student will ONLY receive credit one time for that class. (although both grades will be used in computing the overall GPA)

  7. Only the letter grade of C or higher will be allowed for English Comp I&II academic credit.

  8. UAH only factors in UAH courses for UAH gpa.

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