Are college football players required to take and do well in classes? How long has this been a requirement?

Pinata: Are college football players required to take and do well in classes? How long has this been a requirement?
I need to know if college football players are required to take and do well in college classes (I believe they are, in current times), but even more specifically, I need to know how long this has been a requirement by law or colleges for football players at their schools to do so.

Answers and Views:

Answer by DGK ALL DAY!!
a lot of the time they just ease by with the bare minimum

Answer by Bad Αss
Attending and doing well in class has always been a requirement, heh, heh, heh.

Answer by emiller1998
Yes they have to take classes. Its always been a requirement.

They can take whatever they want. Usually they just take general education classes which are pretty easy. Some of them actually have a major but its also usually a joke like communications.

Answer by Cal
Most universities set a specific GPA minimum for athletes to achieve, however, it is a general rule of thumb that as long as the player is passing their courses, they will be able to participate in game play.

Another thing to point out though, numerous institutions tend to turn the blind eye when star players fail to perform in the classroom… Despite moral objection, this is indeed reality. Coaches have been known to pull strings for athletes to meet eligibility requirements.

These rules have been in place, to my knowledge, since academic sporting was put into place.