The NCAA is looking very seriously at tossing the 8/5 rule in favor of a rule
which would tie
scholarships to academic performance. There are a lot of specifics to be
worked out, but basically, if you lose a student to academics, you'll likely
lose a scholarship, and if you don't graduate students, you'll lose
scholarships.
The aim of course is admirable, but there will be a lot of pressure to keep
kids eligible and graduated, and the people who will be most stressed will be
the folks who do the academic support work. As a matter of fact, anyone
looking for a challenging (and growing) career should consider academic support
if this rule actually goes through, because a) there will be a lot of jobs, and
b) a lot of turnover.
The rule change has not and will not be finalized for some time.
In another NCAA rule change - you can call this the Krzyzewski Rule - teams
will no longer be allowed to go overseas within 30 days of the beginning of
practice.
Duke pioneered this when they read the rules carefully and found it was
permissible to do so, and so got an early jump on practice.
Like the other change mentioned, it has to go through various steps before
being finalized and approved.