Want to Play on a College Team? Get Your Game On Columbia SC

Want to Play on a College Team? Get Your Game On

Think you've got what it takes to play college ball? You might, but unless you're making headlines, college coaches are not going to come knocking on your door. Most athletes aren't actively pursued by colleges — and when they are, it's a strictly enforced rule-bound process. If you hope to make the team and perhaps even score a scholarship, you have to get your name out there.

First things first
As you probably already know, getting into college, especially a good one, requires some planning early on. Just as you need to know what it takes to get into a top school, you also need to know what it takes to play for a Division I or II school, because you need more than just athletic prowess.

If you plan to play a sport at the Division I or II level as a freshman, you should be familiarizing yourself with NCAA eligibility requirements as early as your sophomore year of high school, because if you don't meet them, you won't be making the team. Every athlete must meet minimum standardized-test scores and core curriculum requirements — and continue to meet academic requirements each year. In other words, excelling at a sport won't keep you in school if you don't meet both the NCAA's and the school's academic requirements.

NCAA academic requirements vary depending on the division level of the school, but you can be sure that you'll need to maintain at least a GPA of 2.00. If you plan to enroll after August 1, 2008, re...

Author: Amy Ambler

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