NCAA's Adjustment of Eligibility Requirements Might Ease Path for Lander to Indiana
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Prized baskeball recruit Khristian Lander, a 5-start point guard from Evansville Reitz, made it known a month ago that he wanted to reclassify into the 2020 class, and new NCAA guidelines released on Friday might make that easier.
The NCAA announced Friday that it would ease academic requirements that incoming Division I freshman athletes will need to meet in order to be eligible to practice and play during the 2020-21 school year.
The biggest changes include:
- Athletes will not be required to submit an SAT or ACT score.
- Students will not be required to submit a final high school transcript with proof of graduation.
- Classroom work during this academic year essentially will be disregarded if they had earned at least a 2.3 grade-point average in 10 NCAA-approved core courses before the start of their senior year of high school. Seven of those 10 classes must be in English, math or science. Lander is an excellent student with a 3.8 grade point average, but it's unclear where he stands on the core courses.
The NCAA needed to make adjustments all schools across the country have been closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple SAT and ACT testing dates have been canceled, as well.
Prior to these changes, an athlete had to complete at least 16 core high school classes with at least a 2.3 GPA and meet a minimum standardized-score requirement. Athletes with the minimum required GPA currently must get at least a 980 on the SAT or a 75 on the ACT.
Lander and his family talked about moving up his graduation a year instead of considering leaving Reitz and attending prep school for a year.
"Honestly it was the best-case scenario, to go to (college) early instead of a prep school," Keith Lander, Khristian's father, told the Courier & Press last month. "He had the opportunity to get his classes done and get a head start. At the end of the day, it was what he wanted to do anyway. It was something we had discussed and we figured out it was a possibility."
Lander's father told the Courier & Press that Khristian had added two classes and was shooting to graduate by June. Lander is considered a top-10 player nationally in the 2021 class and is certainly talented enough to step right in and play a big role for Indiana next year if he can reclassify on time.
The NCAA Division I Academic Committee reviewed initial-eligibility data and determined the NCAA would offer flexibility for incoming student-athletes based on research, fairness, equity and a standard of college readiness,” the association said in a statement.
The Academic Committee is still addressing how these relaxed freshman-eligibility requirements may have a future impact on the academic standards that athletes must meet to remain eligible to play and that teams must meet to be eligible for postseason play, NCAA spokeswoman Michelle Hosick said.
For athletes who began their senior year of high with a GPA in core courses that was below 2.3, the NCAA's initial-eligibility staff will take into consideration letter grades earned in other terms.
