Tighter academic requirements that force athletes to make continued progress toward a degree could keep them away from the playing field if they blow off classes to prepare for a sports season, a UA representative to the NCAA told the Faculty Senate yesterday.

Student-athletes who don't pass at least six units in the previous term won't be eligible to play, and will also be ineligible if they don't maintain a minimum GPA and make annual progress toward a degree, said Dudley Woodard, the UA's faculty athletic representative.

"They can't play basketball for example in the spring if they blow off (classes) in the fall term," he said.

Academic advisers must also verify that students are on track toward a degree, which would keep them from taking classes unrelated to their major simply to boost their GPA to a minimum level, he said.

In 1997, former basketball star Miles Simon took a family studies class over winter session to earn the credits required to make progress toward a degree.

Such a situation might not be allowed under the new rules, which were passed last year and apply to all student-athletes who entered on or after Aug. 1, 2003.

"You'd have to stay on course in order to practice and play," Woodard said.

The new rules also boost the minimum required GPA for eligibility, requiring students to maintain a 2.0 by the beginning of their fourth year, rather than their fifth year.

Athletic director Jim Livengood has described those rule changes as a precursor to a sweeping set of changes to NCAA regulations passed last week that penalizes schools when athletes perform poorly in the classroom.

Under those rules, schools must stay above a to-be-determined graduation rate to avoid punishment. They also prevent a school from replacing a scholarship athlete for a full year if that athlete leaves in poor academic standing.

Even if an athlete turns professional, "the coach won't be able to replace that person" if he or she isn't in good academic standing, President Peter Likins, the Pacific 10 Conference representative to the NCAA, said last month.

But at the UA, most athletes who leave the university do so in good standing.

Of the student-athlete class that entered in 1994-95 and had until 1999-2000 to graduate, 82 percent graduated, transferred in good standing or left the university in good standing for other reasons, Woodard said. About 12 percent turned professional, though Woodard didn't say how many were in good academic standing.