Students attending Grapevine-Colleyville ISD's iUniversity Prep, the district's online college preparatory public school, who want to pursue college sports are now able to do so as the school has earned accreditation from the National Collegiate Athlete Association.

This means that iUniversity Prep high school coursework designated as a core course by the NCAA (in English, math, science, social sciences and foreign language) has met the NCAA’s standards for nontraditional and distance learning schools. In order for a nontraditional school to gain accreditation, the courses offered must meet specific criteria, including:

• The course must be led by a qualified instructor who regularly engages with students.
• Course completion must happen in a specified time frame.
•  The course must be comparable in length, content, and rigor to core classes offered in traditional school settings.
•  The course must prepare students for academic work at a four-year-college.

Completion of a certain number NCAA-approved core courses, along with the maintenance of a designated core coursework GPA, is mandatory for students who wish to compete in (and earn scholarships for) college sports. GCISD opened iUniversity Prep opened in 2013 as the only full-time, online public school in Texas that’s not managed by a private, for-profit education company. Enrollment in the iUniversity program is available, tuition-free, to any Texas resident in the fourth through 12th grades.