How to register with the NCAA Eligibility Centre

• 17 January 2022

If you want to play NCAA college sports and receive a scholarship at the NCAA DI or DII level, you will need to register and be cleared by the NCAA. The Eligibility Center is the organization within the NCAA that determines the academic eligibility and amateur status for all NCAA DI and DII athletes. This task is something that many student athletes and their families find challenging. Well today, you’re in luck! On this installment of THE BLOG, we will go through some key steps of how to register with the NCAA Eligibility Centre.

Step 1: Create Your Account

All athletes will need to create an account in order to start the process. It is best to create your account by the start of your junior year in high school (Grade 11) to avoid getting caught in the backlog of athletes trying to get cleared at the end of the year. Once your account is created you will have several more steps to submit your transcripts, test scores and answer your amateur status questionnaire before you are finished. Once you have created your account, check your email, and log in to finish the registration process

Step 2: Send In Your Test Scores and Transcript

The next step is to have your academic advisor and your testing centre personnel for ACT and SAT testing send in your academic results. Once the NCAA has your complete academic records and test scores, they will not review your information unless it has been requested by an NCAA University. If you have registered with the NCAA and have not had your eligibility status completed, chances are it has not been requested by a coach.

Step 3: Payment Process

The NCAA eligibility center clearly states that eligibility registration cannot be complete unless payment has been received. The cost is $70.00 for U.S. citizens and $120.00 for international students.

Step 4: Account Information Breakdown

The next step is to update as much information as you can on your account. The following describes all of the sections within your NCAA Eligibility Center account:

• About You: This section contains three subsections that ask for students’ basic information (Student Name, gender, date of birth, race/ethnicity).
• Contact information: Address, Country, City, postal code, email, and phone number
• Residency: Verification of countries in which you have lived, including dates that you resided there.
• Your School Coursework: Here you will be asked questions about schools that you have attended. In the general coursework section, you will be asked these “yes” or “no” questions about the athlete:
• Have you attended any school OUTSIDE of the United States and U.S. Territories after age 11?
• Have you attended a U.S. Department of Defense school after age 11?
• Have you been home schooled after age 11?
• List of Schools Attended: You will need to list each school the student has attended along with date began and grade completed.
• Where did you attend ninth grade? (State/ Province, City, School, Date that you began school and grades attended at this school.)
• Additional Coursework: Students will be required to answer more “yes or “no” questions, if athletes answer “Yes” to any of 5 questions they will need to provide specific examples for each including Course name, School, Date Range and Actions.
• Did you ever fail and retake a class?
• Did you ever retake a class to improve a grade?
• Have you ever taken a college course at a junior college, community college, two-year college, or 4-year college?
• Did you ever take summer school at a different location than your U.S. high school? Or Have you ever take any of the following:
• Correspondence course- a course completed at your own pace that does not require a teacher’s supervision or assistance. Online or internet class.
• Course where the lesson, assignments and tests were on the computer

*An additional set of questions will be asked if there needs to be more clarification from your previous answered questions. Questions may include: Have you ever repeated a year of high school or secondary school?

Making sure that you have completed all these steps correctly will make your recruitment process in the NCAA go much smoother. When in doubt, always ask questions, seek help from your academic advisors, coaches, and the NCAA helpline. Start your journey to collegiate sports on a good note!