Athletics Veritas is a weekly series aimed at helping higher education executives, faculty, and other stakeholders stay tuned in on trending national issues impacting college athletics, especially NCAA Division I. Athletics Veritas is created by senior DI athletic administrators around the nation.
Term-in-Ology: The NCAA’s 45-day Clock
From time to time a late arriving, talented freshman walk-on can be “found gold” to a coach and their team’s on-field or on-court success. However, late arriving walk-ons often need to get their academic and amateurism eligibility sorted with the NCAA Eligibility Center before they can be certified eligible to compete.
If a prospect reports for athletics participation before the student's amateur status has been certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center, the student may practice, but not compete, for a maximum period of 45 days. After this period, the student's amateur status must be certified in order to continue to practice or to compete. This 45-day period used to be a stricter 14-day window until Division I deregulated the bylaw and gave all involved more time including the NCAA Eligibility Center staff due to the high volume of urgent amateur cases as a result of late registrants, delayed responses for additional information and the time required to complete amateurism certifications.
In addition to amateurism certification, if a prospect reports for athletics participation before initial eligibility qualification status has been certified, the student may practice, but not compete, during a 45-day period, provided the student meets all other requirements to be eligible to practice. The other requirements would be that they are admitted to the Division I institution and registered in a full-time course load. A Division I institution may not provide athletically related financial aid to the student during this period. After the 45-day period, the student shall have established minimum requirements (as certified by the Eligibility Center) to continue practicing or to compete and receive athletically related financial aid.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
