NCAA Clearinghouse: To be eligible as a freshman, a student athlete must be certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center, In Division I, 16 core courses are required (English – 4, Math – 3, Natural or Physical Science – 2, Social Science – 2, Additional Year of English, Math or Science – 1, Addition Years from Any Academic Area – 4). Division I operates off a sliding scale, meaning that the higher the core GPA, the loser the standardized test score can be and vice versa.