The Student Athlete - Sportlinx360

The Student-Athlete

Balance between sport and study

PSA to SA

It is called PSA (Prospective Student-Athlete)) anyone who intends to become a university student and represent his or her college in the university sports leagues in which he or she participates. From the moment the PSA is admitted to college, the team, and the college sports league, it officially becomes a student-athlete or student-athlete (SA).

All leagues and divisions have academic and sporting requirements that must be met in order to be declared “eligible” and represent your college. For this reason, there are organizations outside the colleges, but regulated by each league, whose task is to ensure that each PSA meets the minimum requirements to compete in a given league or division.

For this purpose, the NCAA uses its Eligibility Center (years ago called Clearinghouse)

for the Division I championships

, Division II

championships and recently also for Division III

for which a new dedicated section has been created.

It is important to remember that the rules are different for each division, both from an academic and sporting point of view as far as the academic, age and amateur parts are concerned.

A similar “eligibility”

procedure is also carried out in the NAIA through its Eligibility Center

called PlayNaia. As with the NCAA, there are online forms to fill out regarding the sports and academic career of the Prospective Student-Athlete from the age of 14.

For the NJCAA (the 2-year Junior/Community College League) there is no external organization to evaluate the academic and sports requirements and it is the responsibility of the institutes, usually through very detailed forms, to certify each PSA for the competition and the sports seasons available.

Once he was declared “eligible” and began his journey in the States, he
Student-athletes
have responsibilities and commitments that are most considerable during the period of preparation and competitions (which generally lasts an academic semester) while they decrease during the
off-season
(i.e. the semester in which the reference championship does not take place), thus allowing the student to focus more on the academic part.

We remind you that those who choose to do this path never neglect study and exams, but with the division of semesters and championships it is possible to organize your own schedule (calendar of lessons and commitments) so that during the “in-season” semester you can take the less demanding courses; The off-season, on the other hand, is the time to focus more on the academic part by taking a few more courses or choosing the most difficult ones, as well as having more time for leisure and, why not, even to work on campus and start creating a curriculum.