Homeschool and NCAA Eligibility: Simplifying the Process Step by Step

Homeschool and NCAA / Online School and NCAA

Homeschooling and the NCAA process can seem overwhelming at first. Is your son or daughter interested in participating in athletics in college? If they are homeschooled or participate in online school and are prospective student-athletes with NCAA, keep reading!

Would you rather listen to an expert review the process? Click here to listen to our podcast interview on the NCAA and Homeschooling process with Susan Hefner from Excelsior Classes.

A few steps will ensure your athlete is eligible for competing at the collegiate level- homeschool and NCAA stuff does NOT have to be difficult.

Step 1–Visit the NCAA website at https://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/future/home-school-students

I recommend reading through their toolkit while your student is in 7th or 8th grade for planning purposes. Although their rules can change, the basics are set in place. It’s ever too early to start considering high school online or homeschool curriculum for prospective student athletes!

Step 2–Plan to Register with the NCAA Eligibility Center https://web3.ncaa.org/ecwr3/

If your son or daughter has aspirations to compete as a Division 1 or 2 athlete, they will need a Certificate Account.

When? Once they are in 10th grade, it’s a great time to do that (before any official visits or letters of intent are signed). For those interested in Division 3, a Profile Page should be created and they will receive an NCAA ID number.

From the start of 9th grade, you have exactly 4 years to meet NCAA requirements.

Step 3–Make a Plan for Curriculum – Traditional Homeschool Courses….

The NCAA is very specific with what they identify as a true homeschool course. Typically, these are traditional courses with a parent serving as the teacher AND the grader (or classes at a homeschool co-op).

For these Homeschool courses, parents will:

1) complete a Core-Course Worksheet for each core course

2) complete and Administrator and Accordance Statement

3) maintain and submit an Official Home School Transcript.

Thankfully, the Core-Course Worksheets (CCW) are relatively simple to complete. However, I recommend staying on top of them and completing them as the course work is completed. Save them electronically for future submission (via email or mail, although email is preferred).

You will need to provide the textbook used, general syllabus, type of assessments, among other specific descriptions of the course. For those who prefer PDFs, you can edit directly on the form and print it to sign. NCAA also has the CCW form available in doc. form on their site.

Which courses do you need to submit a CCW for? Specifically, NCAA requires a Core-Course Worksheet for English, math, natural or physical science, social science, foreign language, comparative religion or philosophy classes. Important to note, they do not accept Bible Study; they only accept comparative religion.

How many CCWs do you need to submit?

You need to submit a CCW for each of the 16 core courses. You may choose to submit additional CCWs if you are not sure if some will be approved or if you want to try to improve the core GPA.

Step 3 Plan for Curriculum Continued – Non-Traditional Courses

According to their site, non-traditional courses are courses with content developed, taught, and graded by an outside instructor. An example would be an online class. This is where it becomes a bit tricky. A number of programs have submitted specific courses to NCAA to obtain approval. If your student completes one of these courses, they will directly submit the transcript for you

Just because a program has one course approved does not mean that their entire program is accredited. It is best to search each individual course that you are interested in your prospective student-athlete taking and make sure it is approved.

You can view the list of approved courses here.

Some complete online programs are approved. Just triple check and make sure the level of enrollment your student has is approved. Often, there are NCAA advisors working for the online schools who can provide assistance.

Need more assistance and advising? Excelsior Classes offers advising specific to NCAA prospective student-athletes.

Regardless of whether the coursework is traditional homeschool or non-traditional classes, you will want to make sure you are fulfilling the requirements of the college(s) that your student is interested in. For example, some colleges require more foreign language courses than others; that is something to keep in mind and plan in advance for.

NOTE: if your prospective student athlete is planning to compete Division 1 the following rules apply:

• 16 core courses must be completed

• 10 of the 16 must be completed before the 7th semester of high school

• The 7/10 rule applies….this means 7/10 core courses must be in math, English, and natural or physical science and must be completed by the end of junior year.

Step 4- Take the ACT and / or SAT

Depending on the college(s) of interest, the prospective student athlete should register to take the ACT or SAT. Test scores should be submitted directly to the NCAA with the code 9999. The NCAA calculates the core course GPA unweighted and determines if the student meets the minimum GPA, and for Division 1, the minimum for SAT or ACT testing.

Step 5: Initial and Final Submission

Congratulations! You are ready to submit…..you have a few choices here! You can submit everything that is completed after junior year, and then submit the remaining CCWs upon completion during senior year.

• Submit an official transcript
• Proof of high school graduation (with a specific graduation date), or if you are submitting after 11th grade, a transcript with a high school START date and a PROJECTED finish date
• Signed statement of who managed the program and that it was in alignment with your state laws (Administrator and Accordance Statement)
• Core-course worksheet for any traditional classes taken
• Specific Home School Cover Sheet

NCAA will not evaluate your paperwork until a D2 or D1 coach puts the athlete on their Insitutional Request List (IRL). If you are waiting and haven’t heard anything, be sure to check and make sure the coach has submitted a request. Next, you will then wait to hear back from NCAA.

Step 6: Wait for Provisional Approval

Finally, you will be able to log in on the NCAA site and check your status (preliminary, provisional, final approval). Hurray! You completed the homeschool and NCAA process.

Check out our other helpful resources-

Podcasts for Sports Mental Training

Resources for NCAA and Homeschooling

How to Pick an Online Class