Are athletes in the football program held to the same academic requirements as other Penn State students?
DF: Our student-athletes are students, general students just like the regular University. Our University has a criteria for participation that exceeds the NCAA. We are more stringent. They have to pass more courses of a higher GPA, do more things toward graduation than a normal student has to. So, yes, our academic qualifications for participation are higher than the NCAA but are equal to all the other students at the University. We have a normal progress at the University that states if a student-athlete is in a certain semester, he has to pass a certain number of credits from the University in order to be deemed eligible, to maintain his eligibility. The NCAA says that at the end of each year you have to pass 24 credits. So at the end of two it would be 24, at the end of four, it would be 48. At our University, at the end of two semesters, it is 24 because of the transition that goes on. But at the end of four, we go up to 52, and at the end of six, we go up to 83. So the NCAA goes o
