With eligibility recertification and spring certification fast approaching, the NJCAA would like to turn the spotlight on intersession courses. Intersession courses are classes that begin and/or end outside of the institution defined term dates. For a class to be considered as either a fall or spring term course, the start and end dates of the class must fall within the institution’s published term dates as listed in the school catalog. This rule applies regardless of where the institution records the credits on the transcript.
Intersession credits can only be counted towards accumulation for NJCAA eligibility purposes. Credits may be listed on the transcript under the fall or spring term; but they can only be used toward accumulation. The NJCAA looks at the date the class begins and ends to determine how the credit hours are counted. Again, it is not based on how it is listed on the transcript.
Please refer to Case 1 on pages 227-228 and Cases 11-14 on pages 245-246 of the 2015-2016 NJCAA Handbook & Casebook for more information on intersession courses.
Examples:
If a first semester basketball player only passes 10 of 12 hours during the fall term, but passes 6 hours during the winter intersession - which starts after the fall term end date and ends before the spring term begin date - would they be eligible for the spring semester?
Yes, since the student has only attempted one (1) full time term they must meet the requirements of Article V, Section 1.D.2.b Having accumulated more than 12 credits prior to the 15th calendar day of their second full time term and having an associated GPA of 1.75 or better, they would be eligible for participation in the spring term. A freshman basketball player may take courses in the winter intercession to meet the accumulation rule but they cannot be added back to the fall term to meet previous term eligibility requirements.
How do you recertify the student mentioned in the above example?
In this situation when recertifying this student-athlete for the spring, you would not list him/her as having passed 16 hours during the fall term, but instead would enter 10 hours passed in the previous full-time term and 16 hours passed for their accumulation.
A softball player passes 12 fall credit hours. Is it possible for her to enroll in 3 winter intersession credit hours and 9 spring credit hours to total 12 full-time hours for the spring and be eligible for participation?
No, a student-athlete must be enrolled in 12 or more hours in the term which they choose to participate at the college they choose to participate for. The student-athlete may not combine an intersession course with courses in a term to meet the full time enrollment requirement. The intersession course does not begin and or end during the published spring schedule, therefore those courses may not be used to meet enrollment requirements for the spring term.