Correct in that the NCAA is cracking down on these types of classes. They are still allowed and available to take, which is why people still take them, and I don't know how they are classified, but I can truthfully say that that the academic advising folks strongly discourage anyone taking the classes, precisely for this reason.
Academic eligibility is first and foremost on the head of the student-athlete. Yes they need proper advising and things of that nature, but there are two types of academic ineligibility. If your grades are below a GPA threshold, that's on the student-athlete for the most part. If it's a percentage deal, that's usually on the academic folks, although many times the issue there is someone has poor grades, so they have to change majors to help things along and stay eligible, and then a person is right on the threshold of his or her percentages.
Basically it's one gigantic math problem...and one I'm happy I never had to know the answer too. The whole press release issues and redacted was interesting to me by the way...and yes they are short staffed over there....Katie and Jaime are working their tails off.
Frank