In a move that should prevent any player from having to endure the agony that former St. John’s point guard Erick Barkley experienced last season, the NCAA has established a one-time reinstatement procedure for student-athletes who received financial aid for educational purposes prior to college.

Barkley was declared ineligible for one game and was required to make restitution arrangements in

the amount of $3,500 for an academic scholarship he received from Riverside Church to attend Maine Central Institute.

Under the new, one-time reinstatement procedure, a player will not have to endure the excruciating investigative and appeals processes and will not be subject to any financial penalty.

Players such as Barkley, who already have been through the reinstatement ordeal, are pardoned from repaying any outstanding portion of the scholarships.

Attempts to contact Barkley have been unsuccessful but sources said he had not made any restitution.

“There are many people in membership who feel that educational expenses should be permissible,” NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro told The Post. “The ideals of education are what the NCAA embodies, so why shouldn’t we find a way to make this happen?”

The new procedure works like this: Any athlete who received financial aid for educational expenses prior to August 1, 2000, must submit a request for reinstatement to the NCAA within 30 days of signing his or her student-athlete statement.

The student-athlete statement is an agreement between the athlete and the governing body of intercollegiate sports that stipulates a player will adhere to all NCAA rules and regulations. The date that a student-athlete signs the statement varies from school to school, based on its academic cycle.

A student-athlete who received educational expenses but takes advantage of this new procedure will be declared ineligible for 10 percent of the season (about three games in basketball, one in football) and will not be required to make restitution.

Although it’s better than the current system, in which players can be ruled ineligible for a majority of a season, the plan is not being well-received by the coaching community. Big East coaches are said to be unanimously opposed to it.

“You can’t expect the kids to admit to something that isn’t wrong,” said St. John’s coach Mike Jarvis. “Ten percent doesn’t sound like a lot, but to the kids one minute is a lot. One or two or three games is a lot. If they’re going to offer amnesty they should offer total amnesty, and hopefully they’ll re-think that before the start of the year.”

A student-athlete who fails to disclose he or she received educational expenses after the 30 days of signing the student-athlete statement will not be eligible for this one-time reduced penalty. Those student-athletes will be subject to loss of eligibility and will have to make arrangements for financial restitution.

In other words, any player who has received impermissible educational expenses (i.e., payment for prep school tuition) has a one-shot opportunity to avoid the emotional turmoil Barkley experienced last season.

The Red Storm guard was dressed and went through warmups prior to a game against Seton Hall on Feb. 29 at the Garden.

Less than 30 minutes before tipoff, Barkley learned that he had been declared ineligible because Riverside Church had augmented his tuition at MCI. St. John’s appealed that ruling and Barkley was reinstated but was required to make arrangements to repay $3,500 to the charity of his choice.

The Barkley case called into question the integrity of the academic scholarship program that Riverside Church has made available to hundreds of needy student-athletes in the metropolitan area over the years. Ernie Lorch, who founded the Riverside Church Hawks, was the focus of the NCAA’s investigation.

“It was highly disturbing to have cast into question what we have done here for 39 years,” said Lorch. “We do not offer athletic scholarships; we offer academic scholarships based on need. We want kids to go to school, to do well, to stay clean. Basketball is not an end, it’s a means to an end.”