[Counselors] NAIA and NCAA Foreign Language Responses

[OSRHEStudent Prep PK-12 Counselor Discussion Board]

Is anyone familiar with the rules about taking a foreign language course in high school so that a student can play college sports?


  *   D1 colleges need to see a foreign language or other approved college courses. My son went to JUCO right out of high school for 1 year and then to ORU. They had some issues with his eligibility and I asked a lot of questions to the clearance person at ORU. I said I am his mom, but I am also his high school counselor. They do like to see that foreign language on the transcript and he DID have to take Spanish last semester at ORU! Red Oak gave that up several years ago because of the cost. My Dalton is the first ever D1 baseball player/or any sport under my counseling years. So, it was a first for me. Had he not taken concurrent classes in high school, he would not have been academically eligible to play and would have had to be an academic redshirt. I hope this helps.


  *   NCAA requires 4 additional units of the core courses and foreign language courses can count for these. NCAA will not accept our computer courses, so I encourage all students planning on participating in college sports to enroll in the 2 foreign language classes to count specifically for this purpose.  Otherwise they must take 4 additional core classes which are difficult to get done.



  *   Nowhere in the NCAA/NAIA regulations does it say that foreign language is absolutely mandated. However, we have found that some universities outside of Oklahoma, especially Texas, MUCH prefer they have the language rather than computer technology. To be safe, we try to guide our athletes down the foreign language route just in case. The rules seem simple enough to understand, but when a bunch of folks (coaches, counselors, admins) start interpreting those rules is where it gets real sticky. I don't know if this helped you at all, other than seeing that many of us are in the same boat with this :)



  *   We encourage our students who think they may be able to play at the next level to take the foreign languages instead of two years of technology. NCAA doesn't accept the technology classes. However, I have had students that did take the technology classes and we had them take extra core classes on top of the Oklahoma requirements to meet the requirements of NCAA. I hope that helps.


  *   They DO have to have a foreign language to be eligible for any college sport! I had to give an online course to a student in the summer my first
year as counselor because I didn't know that.



Sabrina Wood
Coordinator of Student Preparation for College Readiness
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
655 Research Parkway, Suite 200
Oklahoma City, OK 73104
swood at osrhe.edu<mailto:swood at osrhe.edu>
https://www.okhighered.org/student-prep/
405-225-9257

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