By Nate Ewell

Changes are on the way to both the SAT and the NCAA Eligibility Center, but neither should intimidate prospective NCAA hockey players.

The Eligibility Center (eligibilitycenter.org) will raise its minimum standards for incoming freshmen who enroll on or after Auf. 1, 2016. We covered those changes in this story, and they will have minimal impact on the majority of men’s hockey players.

The major points of the new NCAA Eligibility Center standards, effective Aug. 1:

• Slightly raised requirements on the sliding scale of minimum grade-point average and SAT scores (detailed here, .pdf)
  
  
• Students must take 10 of their 16 core courses prior to the start of their Grade 12 year (does not apply to students with no U.S. transcripts)

Essentially, any average student who properly plans their courseload beginning in Grade 9 or 10 will have no issues with the new Eligibility Standards.

The new SAT was introduced in March 2016. As with the prior test, the key components in the eyes of the NCAA Eligibility Center are Reading/Writing and Math. Individual schools may look more closely at the individual components of the test, but the Eligibility Center is simply concerned with a student’s combined score in those two areas.

The key differences (detailed here):

• The new test consists of three parts (rather than four), plus an optional essay
  
  
• The new test will take three hours (plus essay), rather than 3:45
  
  
• Students will not be penalized for incorrect answers (thus no penalty for guessing)

Prospective student-athletes who took the old SAT do not need to retake the test; the Eligibility Center will still accept their scores. Of course, as always, students are allowed to take the test as often as they would like, with only the highest scores applying to the Eligibility Center standards. The NCAA will not combine scores from components of the old and new SATs (e.g., an old reading score with a new math score) – they will just consider the highest combined score from either the old or new test.

Also note that prospective Division I student-athletes do not necessarily need to take the SAT; the ACT is another standardized test option that will be considered by the NCAA Eligibility Center.

These changes do not impact a key fact that has always been true: NCAA Division I hockey programs are looking for talented players who are academically qualified to succeed in the classroom and on the ice.