The importance of academics

Oftentimes, the first deciding factor for whether college coaches will consider an athlete is their grades. No matter how good an athlete is, they must meet the minimum NCAA academic requirements to be eligible for Division I and II sports. This includes completing 16 core classes with a minimum of a 2.3 GPA for Division I, and a 2.2 GPA for Division II.

“A lot of schools with high or decent academics, you need to be able to get into the school, first and foremost. So if you’re an Ivy League school, for example, that probably cuts down your potential recruits by like, 95% so that would be probably the beginning,” Williams said.

Athletes recognize the importance of getting good grades as well. For example, Yadavalli maintains rigorous academic achievement for the potential of attending a top academic school.

“Even if I get a soccer offer, I still need to be able to academically keep up, so it’s not an option for me to slack off at school,” Yadavalli said.

Similarly, Luzzo felt the reward of staying on top of his academics after being told by coaches at a showcase that he was lucky to have had the grades to be considered, and that many candidates had already been eliminated because they didn’t.

“I think grades are the most important thing,” Luzzo said. “The first thing coaches are going to look at is whether they have the grades. And if they do, they’ll look at them. If they don’t it’s an automatic cross-off.”

The NCAA doesn’t set academic requirements for Division III schools. Instead, with most Division III schools being more academically focused, athletes must meet the school’s regular admission standards. In most cases, this is higher than the NCAA Division I and II requirements, meaning academics are typically even more important for athletes aiming to play Division III.

Going even further, Division III schools aren’t allowed to offer athletic scholarships. To get around this rule, many schools offer academic scholarships to athletes as an alternative way to give them money, but their grades must be high enough to receive one. St. Olaf, a Division III school, gave one of these scholarships to Luzzo.

“For St. Olaf, they technically gave me an academic scholarship. They first gave me an offer, and then based on how good my grades were, they could raise the scholarship. So I would get some more money for fees like housing and stuff,” Luzzo said.