NCAA

What is the NCAA?

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, is a professional organization that provides a pathway to opportunity for college athletes. More than 1,100 participating schools across the USA work together with the NCAA national office and athletics conferences to support 500,000 college athletes that make up more than 19,500 teams competing in NCAA sports.

The NCAA’s current three-division structure creates a fair playing field for teams from similar schools and provides college athletes more opportunities to participate in national championships:

• Division I schools generally have the biggest student bodies, manage the largest athletics budgets and offer the highest number of athletics scholarships.

• Division II provides growth opportunities through academic achievement, learning in high-level athletics competition and a focus on service to the community.

• Division III offers participation in a competitive athletic environment that pushes college athletes to excel on the field and build upon their potential by tackling new challenges across campus.

High School Timeline

1. Register for a free Profile Page account at NCAA Eligibility Center to review Arapahoe's List of Approved NCAA Courses and make sure you are on track to qualify for eligibility. Consider creating an email address specifically for NCAA communication.

2. Transition to a Certification account if you are being actively recruited (Div I/II only).  This allows us to send your transcript and enables you to receive amateurism certification. The cost for a certified account is $100 (talk to your counselor if you think you may qualify for a fee waiver)

3. Verify that you meet academic requirements, which includes a 2.3 GPA in 16 core-courses for Div I, and 2.2 GPA in 16 core courses for Div II. Test scores are no longer required. You can calculate your NCAA GPA using CoreCourseGPA (enter the CEEB code 060928 for Arapahoe).

4. Ensure that your sports participation information is correct

5. Ask your counselor to send your transcript to your Eligibility Center account at the end of both your Junior and Senior year

6. Enter the colleges you are applying to in Scoir and request any letters of recommendation you may need

7. Request final amateurism certification in your account beginning April 1st (for fall enrollees)