o his/her school of choice there are two applications. One to the university, and one that goes through the NCAA Clearinghouse. This Clearinghouse governs the eligibility of any tentative student-athlete that will receive a scholarship to participate in a NCAA regulated collegiate sport. The requirements stipulated by this governing body include a minimum G.P.A. of 2.0, thirteen academic “core” courses as stipulated buy the NCAA and minimum scores on either the SAT or ACT college entrance exam. Students with lower standardized test scores need higher G.P.A’s in order to meet the specified requirements. These requirements are known as Proposition 16 (once known as Prop 48). Proposition 48 had only 11 necessary core courses but no sliding scale as far as a lower test score ofr a higher G.P.A. Since the implementation of this proposition, African Americans are denied acceptance at a rate 9-10 times higher than that for whites. (1) NCAA’s own research proved that hypothetically placing the 1986 stipulations on entering student-athletes in 1984 and 1985 would have denied 47% of the African American student-athletes who went on to graduate and only 8% of white student-athletes. Also taken into consideration is the fact that there is a direct correlation between low income families and standardized test scores. When the Proposition 16 requirements were invoked in 1996 to take place of the past Proposition 16, the number of eligible student athletes dropped from 83.2% to a stunning 64.7% . And though 67% of Asian and White college bound high school students met the requirements, only 46.4% of African American students did. African Americans are not even getting a chance to start, let alone prove what they can do. The discrimination begins simply at the beginning of enrollment to an institution and gets worse thereafter. The rates these above criteria are weighed against are the graduation rates of those st...
