By Nate Carlisle
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated May 26, 2010 03:27PM
After years of questions over
whether athletes across the country were cheating on them, the NCAA said
Tuesday it will no longer accept Brigham Young University’s online
courses.
The NCAA in its announcement framed the
prohibition as part of a larger effort to clamp down on online or
mailed-correspondence courses taken by athletes. But for the moment, the
NCAA is only banning online courses from BYU and one other institution,
the Illinois-based American School.
The NCAA, in the press release on its
website, said BYU and American School were “two of the programs most
frequently submitted to the NCAA Eligibility Center.”
BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said the NCAA
notified BYU of its decision Friday. Administrators there were
surprised, Jenkins said, and want to put BYU’s online courses back in
compliance.
“We do have some questions we want to pose to
the NCAA,” Jenkins said. “We’ve always had a good relationship with the
NCAA and hope to be able to address those questions with them soon.”
The prohibition goes into effect Aug. 1.
Courses completed before then will be considered on a case-by-case
basis, the NCAA said.
In 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune reported how
an unknown number of high school and transferring athletes have taken
online courses to become eligible to play Division I college sports. The
students typically need credits in subjects like math or English or
need to increase their grade point average.
Some of those athletes and their suitors or
coaches have been caught cheating, especially with BYU correspondence.
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