High School Work

Ponessa, Jeanne. "Student Coursework Runs Afoul of NCAA's Rules on Eligibility." Education Week 16.7 (1996): 1. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 Nov. 2010.

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Jeanne Ponessa writes about Matt Kolling, a classic scholar athlete. He graduated with a 3.7 grade-point average. Kolling was heading to Mankato State University for football. During the summer Matt was the only player not to receive a letter of approval from the NCAA. He was not eligible to compete because the NCAA had determined that some of the work Kolling did in English class did not pass academic requirements. Matt, his parents, and the teachers and administrators defend his courses to be high-quality studies intended for college bound students. Joe Nathan, director of the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota, say that the NCAA is ignoring many recommendations that people around the nation are making to high schools. NCAA raised the academic standard students must meet in order to compete in college sports. Students must now submit their class work, grades, and test scores to the NCAA’s Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse to see if the work is and grades are acceptable. Now Kolling’s high school is disputing on including a sophomore English class called Developing Study Skills.

This article really shows the power the NCAA has over high schools and college athletes. They took Matt Kolling’s dream away from him all because his high school gave him easy work. It isn’t like Matt had the choice of the work. He just signed up for class and did the work. If the NCAA didn’t have much power a very intelligent athlete could had made a major impact on college football. As a result of the NCAA saying that Matt Kolling’s high school work was not college-bound work; high schools across America have to find a way to add more class to make the work separate for college-bound students and students that do not want to go to college. Jeanne Ponessa points out what a difference the NCAA can change in a person’s life, even if it is a bad or good decision. Just this one little decision has made change to all of high school education. Is it really a good idea to let the NCAA have this kind of power? If they have this much power will they abuse it in the future?