Although the recent ruling regarding NCAA initial eligibility standards has not affected Iowa State’s recruitment of student athletes, Athletics Director Gene Smith said the current system needs revamping.

The recent ruling in Cureton v. NCAA opposes the use of standardized test scores in determining initial eligibility for athletes.

Cureton v. NCAA was brought forth by four African American student athletes who had been denied eligibility to play sports as freshmen because they failed to achieve the minimum standardized test scores required by the legislation.

In March, a federal court ruled the NCAA’s initial eligibility standards invalid, according to a NCAA press release. However, a stay was granted March 30 by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. The stay allows the current provisions to remain in effect until a ruling is made on the appeal.

Smith said there is a feeling in the athletic community that some alteration in initial eligibility requirements is needed.

“I think everyone agrees that there needs to be a change because there’s been a group of people who have been negatively impacted, and that’s the low socio-economic student athletes,” he said.

Smith said the majority of students being affected by the minimum standardized test score requirements are minority students.

“Obviously, we all agree that this has to be looked at in a way to solve the problem so that typically African Americans aren’t disproportionately impacted as they are now,” he said.

ISU’s recruitment procedures were not affected by the ruling, said Bill Smith, director of compliance for the university.

“Iowa State was directed by the Big XII to maintain the status quo,” he said. “We were directed to assume that the old standards remained in effect, so we recruited accordingly.”

The current initial eligibility for incoming student athletes is determined by a piece of legislation called Proposition 16.

Proposition 16 has been in effect since August 1996, and it uses a combination of minimum ACT and SAT scores as well as GPA in a core curriculum of courses to determine eligibility.

Dave Schnase, director of membership services for the NCAA, said the recent federal court ruling in Cureton v. NCAA only opposed the use of minimum standardized test scores.

The NCAA Division I Board of Directors met Tuesday to discuss alternatives for initial eligibility, said Jane Jankowski, public information coordinator for the NCAA.

“Those alternatives range from potentially maintaining Proposition 16 as the rule, to perhaps a different combination of GPA and test scores … to making freshmen ineligible,” she said.

No report of the board’s discussion was available at press time. Jankowski said a ruling on the appeal is not expected until early fall.