NCAA halts independent study credit for students from Utah, Ill. online schools

NCAA cracks down on correspondence courses

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The NCAA has a message for would-be college athletes hoping to use online courses to bolster their high school transcripts: proceed with caution.

The organization announced Tuesday that it will stop accepting course credit from two virtual schools based in Utah and Illinois as part of a move to strengthen high school eligibility standards in Division I.

That means no more high school credit from Brigham Young University’s independent study program. The school in Provo, Utah, has previously been targeted by NCAA investigators and federal prosecutors pursuing claims of academic fraud at Missouri, Kansas, Mississippi, Nicholls State and Barton County Community College in Kansas.

Also on the prohibited list is the American School, a correspondence program based in Lansing, Ill.

New NCAA rules approved last month require “regular access and interaction” between teachers and students in the 16 core courses required to establish initial eligibility for new college athletes.

The changes don’t affect NCAA Division II schools. An oversight panel from that division declined to endorse the proposed change but will consider the measure again in June.

“We want to make sure that student-athletes are qualified for college coursework,” said NCAA spokesman Chuck Wynne. “Students cannot teach themselves, and they cannot pace themselves. The courses need to have a certain amount of rigor.”

Such interaction doesn’t have to include face-to-face contact, according to the NCAA. Telephone conversations, e-mail exchanges and instant messages are acceptable — provided the student receives specific comments and individual instruction.

The new rules don’t specify a minimum course length but instead require schools to “establish a defined period for completion of the course.”

The changes are effective Aug. 1. Students currently enrolled in the BYU and American School programs can still petition the NCAA for course approval.

A BYU spokeswoman said the school’s independent study program hopes to work with the NCAA on potential improvements that could land it back on the list of approved online schools.

“We’ve always had a good relationship with the NCAA,” spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said. “We have worked very hard to make our courses as rigorous as any high school course.”

American School principal Marie Limback called the NCAA’s decision “shortsighted and a misunderstanding of the education we provide.”

“There’s no question about the rigor and level of education we provide,” she said of the 113-year-old school based in suburban Chicago. “It’s a disappointment for distance education.”

In Missouri, the BYU program is best known as the school that provided former Tiger basketball player Ricky Clemons with nine of the 24 summer school credits he needed to enroll as a junior college transfer in 2002.

While BYU said it found no evidence of cheating on Clemons’ part, questions about his enrollment and subsequent findings of more than 40 violations led to three years of NCAA probation under former coach Quin Snyder.

Wynne said that other virtual schools could be added to the NCAA’s decertification list.

“It’s an ongoing process,” he said.