From the issue dated October 8, 1999

By WELCH SUGGS

AtlantaYohance Buchanan and John Andrews are rich.

They don't look it. Not here on the barren football practice fields behind Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta's West End neighborhood. Not with one of their teammates killed in a random shooting, just hours after the third game of the season.

But these two seniors are rich in potential and opportunity. Thanks to their talent on the football field, Mr. Buchanan, a defensive back, and Mr. Andrews, a linebacker, will in all likelihood receive a free college education from a football powerhouse.

School officials say the two students have done well in the classroom but face one more challenge: scoring high enough on the SAT to compete as a freshmen at an N.C.A.A. college. Neither player has yet done so.

"I'm a little worried about it," says Mr. Buchanan after a recent practice, with Mr. Andrews nodding in agreement.

As they prepare for the SAT, Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Andrews are among those at the center of the debate over the National Collegiate Athletic Association's eligibility requirements.

Since 1986, when it put in place the set of rules known as Proposition 48, the N.C.A.A. has required incoming freshmen to attain certain minimum SAT or ACT scores, in combination with grades, to be eligible to compete. In 1996, with the passage of Proposition 16, the association raised the minimum standards, and added a sliding scale for grades and test scores. For example, a player who scores a combined 820 on the SAT (or 68 on the four sections of the ACT) must have at least a 2.5 grade-point average in 13 core classes to be allowed to compete.

In March, a federal judge ruled that Proposition 16's rigid test-score requirements discriminate against black students, who generally score lower on standardized tests than do white students. The N.C.A.A. appealed the decision. And last week, before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, lawyers for the N.C.A.A. squared off against lawyers representing four athletes who had been denied the chance to play college sports because of their SAT scores.

If the association loses the court battle, it could be forced to lower the test-score requirements, if not do away with them altogether.

While one might expect coaches and administrators at Douglass to look forward to that turn of events, they say the N.C.A.A.'s standards have been good for their athletes.

Samuel L. Hill, the high school's principal, does believe that the SAT is biased against black students as well as students from low-income families -- characteristics that describe most of the students at Douglass. Virtually all of the students there are black, and 60 per cent qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches, based on family income.

But the need to measure up to academic standards in order to play sports in college is a powerful incentive to study, Mr. Hill says.

"If they don't have that hook, they're not going to work as hard. When they're young, they don't see how important this is."

It's only as they learn about the process of applying to college and their chances of winning a scholarship, he says, that "they begin to see what kind of a future they could have."

Margaret Brown, the athletics director and track coach at Douglass, adds: "We try to catch them in 10th grade and make sure they see the reality." The school's students typically take the PSAT in 9th, 10th, and 11th grades, and the SAT at least once in 11th grade before taking it a final time (or two) in 12th grade.

Douglass is a sports powerhouse. Typically, the Astros send 20 to 30 athletes a year -- from the basketball and track teams in addition to football -- on to college on athletics scholarships. According to Michael Sims, an assistant principal and former head football coach at Douglass, perhaps two or three other athletes fail to meet the N.C.A.A.'s standards each year; they go to junior colleges or preparatory schools.

Mr. Hill, Ms. Brown, and Mr. Sims agree that they don't want to see the N.C.A.A. reduce its standards, even though lower requirements might make more Douglass athletes eligible for scholarships.

"Everybody understands here that there are high expectations" for students and athletes alike, Mr. Hill says. "We expect the student to struggle here more than in college, and we want to see them not just qualify for college, but graduate" from college.

Not all high-school administrators and coaches share the views of those at Douglass. Jimmy Dorsey, football coach at McEachern High School in the better-off suburbs west of Atlanta, says that while he approves of eligibility standards, the N.C.A.A.'s are too rigid.

"I don't like the idea of the test as an absolute cutoff," says Mr. Dorsey, whose team played for the state championship last season. "I just don't think that's fair. If they've been to school consistently, they could be 4.0 students and still not make it."

Mr. Dorsey, who had eightseniors receive scholarships to play college football last year, says he prefers the eligibility standards used by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. The N.A.I.A. requires players to meet any two of the following requirements: 860 on the SAT (or an 18 composite score on the ACT), a grade-point average of 2.0 in all high-school courses, and a ranking in the top half of their graduating class.

Requiring an absolute minimum on the tests rules out players who perform poorly for legitimate reasons -- such as being unfamiliar with English, or having a learning disability, he argues.

N.C.A.A. officials have said they will not do away with initial-eligibility standards, including some use of standardized-test scores. And any changes they do make would come only after the case before the appeals court is resolved, they add.

The appeals-court panel could take three months or more to issue a decision, according to Wallace I. Renfro, an N.C.A.A. spokesman. Either side could then appeal the decision to the full appeals court or to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the meantime, Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Andrews are trying to help their team make it back to the state playoffs. The Astros started the season with four straight wins and, late last month, were ranked third in the state by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The two players will also be studying and taking test-preparation classes to get the scores they need to play Division I football. Florida State University is tops on Mr. Buchanan's list, but he is also looking at Georgia Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, and the Universities of Alabama and Michigan. Mr. Andrews is considering the same colleges, except for Florida State.

Neither player has much of an opinion on the N.C.A.A.'s standards. But Gerald Climmons, their coach, agrees with the school's administration that the standards have had a positive impact on all of his players. "My opinion is that over the years, Proposition 48 and the SAT have historically been biased against black students," he says. "At the same time, I've come to realize that you've got to have standards. We might like to see some modification of them, but they've been a good thing."

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