Tyler Combs has spent the past several months trying to make one of the biggest decisions of his life. The NCAA may have made his decision a little simpler.

Combs, a standout football and basketball player at Temecula Valley High, is one of thousands of athletes across the country who must decide between attending a community college or a four-year school. He will likely not receive a scholarship to either for his first year, and going to a four-year school as a walk-on in hopes of earning a scholarship is a huge gamble.

Now, thanks to drastic changes by the NCAA, going to a community college is just as risky.

Beginning with students who entered community colleges this past fall, the NCAA implemented new academic standards that will make it much more difficult for community college athletes to transfer to Division I schools. For athletes like Combs, those changes will play a major part in their college choices.

"I was hoping to develop my skills at a JC and transfer over," Combs said. "They might as well call the JC a four-year college now; it's going to be that tough."

The move is part of a major NCAA overhaul designed to improve graduation rates - specifically among community college transfers, who have the lowest rate among all NCAA Division I athletes. From 1991 to 1996, only 48 percent of athletes who transferred from community colleges to Division I schools graduated. There are more than 2,000 Division I athletes who transfer from community colleges each year, according to NCAA figures.

"With junior college kids, you're talking about the least academically prepared group coming out of high school," Diane Dickman, the NCAA's Managing Director of Membership Services, said by phone. "This isn't targeted toward junior college kids, but toward academic reform. But these kids will have a hard time going Division I now."

Under the old guidelines, student-athletes transferring from two-year schools were required to have 25 percent of their degree completed to be eligible at the Division I level if they transfer after two years. The standards went up to 50 percent after three years; 75 percent after that.

Under the new guidelines, which were approved by the NCAA membership schools, athletes must have 40 percent of their major completed after two years, 60 percent after three years and 80 percent after four years at a community college.

"I don't know what the NCAA is thinking," RCC baseball coach Dennis Rogers said by phone. "It's now a new world for most of these guys. This is going to change the whole course of how everyone does business."

Forced to adapt
Many coaches were upset by the rule changes, but athletes must quickly adapt. Rogers explained the changes to his freshmen and had them meet with a counselor to set up an academic plan in hopes of meeting the stricter requirements.

"We really got to work hard in school, and that's what it comes down to," RCC freshman third baseman Drew Valenzuela, a Riverside Poly graduate, said by phone. "They sit you down and tell you what to take, and you don't waste time with something you won't benefit from."

Complications arise in the percentage of the degree that must be completed, especially for those who have spent three or more years at a community college. Most two-year schools do not offer the classes needed to complete 60 percent of a bachelor's degree. For those athletes who have used a redshirt year, a practice becoming increasingly common among smaller sports and widely used with football players, the switch forces them to decide earlier in their academic career which major they select and where they wish to transfer.

"This is positive in one sense, but they raised the bar too high," UC Riverside men's basketball coach John Masi said. "The intent is good, and no one disputes that. But they overstepped their bounds on the percentage. I think they will tweak this. It might take a year or two, but they will."

For athletes such as Combs, the changes are sudden. When the NCAA changes academic requirements, it is often years in advance, allowing high school athletes to determine their future plans as freshmen. Instead, this move caught many off guard. It was also not well-publicized, and Combs said many of his friends faced with the same decision are unaware of the switches.

"It's like them telling us to try and walk with one leg now," Combs said by phone. "If we were notified when we were freshmen, then it would be a completely different story."

Impact will be felt

Not all credits can be transferred to every school. Even the University of California and California State University systems vary drastically. Out-of-state and private schools are different as well. Most college athletes wait until late in their sophomore year to decide where they will transfer. With the changes, they must decide a major and potential school earlier.

"The majority of our athletes major in common majors that all schools have," RCC football coach and former counselor Bill Brown said by phone. "Every time they make a change in the academic requirements, everyone gets in an uproar and then they get used to it, and it doesn't have an effect in the long run. Kids have to pass classes. That's why we're here."

Several community college coaches and administrators said they feel the NCAA has long been searching for a way to limit community college transfers, as if they are the black sheep among the thousands of NCAA athletes. Many of the schools in the major conferences have shied away from bringing community college transfers into their athletic programs. Mid-major conferences, such as the Western Athletic and Big West, could feel a burn because of the changes.

With a smaller recruiting pool, schools like UC Riverside may not be able to sign transfers. UCR's men's basketball team had four transfers on its roster this past season.

Colleges often seek transfers to play right away because they are more experienced and had extra time to get stronger and more mature.

Brown said RCC often grayshirts its football players to prevent their NCAA clock from beginning. A grayshirt means an athlete takes just under the full-time minimum units.

"We have a big task ahead of us in terms of giving these kids an opportunity," Linda Kelly-Mandich, Fullerton College's academic advisor, said by phone. "We're dealing with kids who are at low skill levels and trying to get them up to speed with everyone else. We will see a huge decline in students going to Division I schools."

Decline expected

San Bernardino Valley College men's basketball coach John Smith said there will be a decline in Division I transfers, but the new requirements can be met as long as "they are not taking 12 (physical education) classes."

Smith added that many athletes take remedial classes in order to advance to higher-level English and math classes, which are needed to transfer. For those athletes, it may take summer-school sessions to complete their work.

Division II and NAIA schools, which are not subject to the new rules, will benefit from the change.

Programs like the Cal State San Bernardino men's basketball team may get more Division I-caliber players.

"This will increase my recruiting pool significantly," Cal State coach Jeff Oliver said. "We usually recruit players whose NCAA clocks are messed up or are academically deficient. Now, I have more academically deficient players to recruit from."

Many predict the amount of community college-to-Division I athletic transfers could be cut in half.

"The message is simple," the NCAA's Dickman said. "If you don't take care of it in high school, you better do it at the junior college. You don't have time to mess around anymore. If you do, you're going to pay the consequences."