Lesson 4 of 7
Do you still need the SAT or ACT?
Here’s the part that would have changed Coach Fite’s whole life. For years, a low SAT score could end your eligibility no matter your grades. That’s what happened to him in 1991.
The Myth
You need a certain SAT or ACT score to be NCAA-eligible.
The Truth
Not anymore. The NCAA permanently dropped the test-score requirement for Division I and II eligibility. You do not need an SAT or ACT score to be certified by the Eligibility Center.
But don’t put the pencil down
Test-optional for *eligibility* is not the same as test-optional for *getting in.* Individual colleges still use the SAT/ACT for admission and for academic scholarship money. A good score can be the difference between a school saying yes and no — and between paying for college and not.
The bottom line
You don’t need a test score to be NCAA-eligible. You may still need one to get admitted and to earn scholarship money. Take it seriously, just for different reasons than your coach’s generation did.
Coach Fite
The exact rule that stopped me doesn’t exist anymore. Sit with that. The thing that cost me Baylor is gone. But the grades and the classes? Those still matter, and they always will. We just took your biggest excuse off the table.