UA coach Mike Stoops talks with football recruit Jarrell Barbour at a scrimmage Saturday. Barbour decommitted to the UA on Wednesday.

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A top Arizona football recruit changed his verbal commitment to the Wildcats and instead chose Arizona State on Wednesday, saying he was "scared" of the UA's admissions process.

Arizona and Arizona State adhere to the same NCAA admissions policies. They play in the same conference, where there is little wiggle room for nonqualifiers, and are overseen by the same Board of Regents.

The schools' differences are subtle.

However, Peoria Centennial High School player Jarrell Barbour said ASU "has a better plan to get me in" academically.

UA compliance director Bill Morgan, who is not permitted to talk about specific recruits, said in general it is "pretty rare" for an incoming athlete to be accepted at ASU and not the UA.

Morgan said players have attended ASU instead of the UA for academic reasons before, but they were usually out-of-state junior college players.

In those cases, ASU accepted a junior college grade that the UA would not accept, Morgan said.

Morgan said incoming freshmen are typically given similar acceptance answers from the three state universities — the UA, ASU and Northern Arizona.

"I would be surprised if any in-state youngster who meets the NCAA's requirements … I would be hard-pressed to think he couldn't get into any of the three," Morgan said.

At the UA, in-state high school students are automatically admitted if they finish in the top 25 percent of their high school class, graduate from an accredited high school and have no coursework deficiencies as described by the regents.

ASU has a similar policy, but in addition to graduating in the top 25 percent, students may be admitted if they have either a 3.0 GPA or higher in competency courses, an ACT composite score of 22 or higher, or an SAT reasoning score of 1040 or higher.

At ASU, students with a GPA of 2.50-2.99 or who finish in the top 50 percent of their high school class are considered for general admission.

The UA's general admission requirements — called "comprehensive review" — look at more than grades and test scores. The 3-year-old review program considers extracurricular activities and special circumstances, and includes essays and letters of recommendation.

"We don't have any generalities anymore of, 'This, this and this, and you're in,'" said Kasey Urquidez, UA director of undergraduate recruitment. "It's more open now."

Barbour, a 6-foot-3-inch, 180-pound senior wide receiver, is a four-star player, according to the Rivals.com recruiting service. Rivals calls him the second-best player in Arizona. Last year, he caught 24 passes for 505 yards and 10 touchdowns, and rushed for 418 yards and five touchdowns.

In general, Morgan said it would be difficult for a high school senior to know now whether he could be admitted to one school and not the other — especially when the ASU and UA admissions policies are so similar.

"I would be surprised that if someone was admissible at ASU, they wouldn't be admissible here, normally — especially a year away," he said.