> In an interview earlier this season, Doug Woog was lamenting the lack of
> healthy players (this was way back when he could at least suit up 18
> skaters - the last few games he has had only 15 or 16).  The inverviewer
> asked that there must be somebody on campus who can fill out a uniform.
> Woog responded that he would love to have Gopher football player Sean
> Hoffman (an all-state hockey player from North Dakota) try out for the
> team.  However, since Hoffman has a football scholarship, his scholarship
> would also have to be charged against the hockey team's scholarship limit.
> Since all hockey scholarships had already been awarded, Hoffman could not
> then play hockey.
>
> Can somebody please explain why?  (And don't say "because Minnesota can
> only play Minnesota kids")
 
I don't believe this is true.  I don't have my NCAA manual here with me,
but multi-sport scholarship athletes have their scholarships go to
the highest sport in the following pecking order:
 
1.  football
2.  basketball
3.  hockey
4.  others (it gets more detailed here but we don't care)
 
There's a flowchart in the NCAA manual that shows this.  That's why, for
example, a *baseball* scholarship player could not join the hockey team.
His scholarship would transfer from the baseball team to the hockey
team.  (This was a tactic used before that loophole was closed.)  But I don't
see anything preventing a football player from doing so.  His scholarship
would stay with football.
 
In fact, there's a kid named Brian Owens who plays both football and
hockey for Colgate.  I don't know if he's a scholarship player or not,
though, so perhaps he isn't the perfect example, but the NCAA rulebook
is quite clear on this.
 
Dave Hendrickson
 
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