At 8:55 PM 1/3/96, Mike wrote:
>On Sat, 30 Dec 1995, Charles O'Brien wrote:
>>                      I have had a stern attitude towards the situation
>> ever since the Bears knowingly dressed an ineligible player against BU
>> a few years ago.
>
>Who was the player?  And how do know that "the Bears" knew about it?
>
>>            I never found it believable that the AD knew the player was
>> ineligible, but had not told Walsh.
>
>Oh, him.
>
>Well, both Woody and Shawn say this is so.  Do you have ANY evidence
>to the contrary?
 
I meant to say something about this before.  I believe that Walsh did not
know that Tardif was ineligible, but that then AD Mike Ploszek did - just
as has been said.  Why?
 
The same weekend that this came out, Merrimack was at Maine for a series
and before the Friday game, Heather and I met with Shawn beforehand.  We
discussed this situation...several things came out of that which caused me
to believe he was telling the truth.
 
First of all, Tardif was not the only Maine athlete who was ineligible.
There were four others, if I remember, and none of their coaches were told
either.  I do not recall if any of the other athletes competed between the
time that the Maine administration became aware of the situation and the
time that the coaches learned about it.
 
Shawn's reaction to this situation was markedly different from his reaction
to some of the other situations that occurred around this time.  He was
angry - genuinely, I believe - that he had been allowed to play someone who
his superiors knew was not eligible.  Contrast this with the Tory
ineligibility which was his own fault.  He did not react the same way when
that situation came out.
 
He also pulled out the NCAA Manual and showed us the rule that applied
here.  It was on the same page as the one dealing with players who come
back from the Olympics, which he said he had spent some time looking at
since it was of concern that season (1993-94).  He said he had not even
noticed the other rule or had reason to think it was a concern here.  (I
posted all this back when it happened, you can check the archives.)  I got
the feeling that he felt kind of embarrassed for having not noticed this
rule.
 
In addition, he said that if he had known that Tardif was ineligible, he
would have done things quite differently against BU.  Remember that it was
known by at least some members of the administration that Tardif and some
others were ineligible.  It was quite clear that Maine was going to have to
forfeit immediately any games Tardif had played in.  He would have been
foolish to play Blair Allison in net against BU since it was clear that
Maine would wind up last after the forfeits and have to face BU in the
playoffs (this was before Maine was barred and the whole court battle took
place).  Allison had already had one good game against BU earlier in the
year and the smart thing would be to not let BU see him again.  He also
said he would have mixed up his system and shown BU a different look than
he would have used in the playoffs.
 
I felt then and still feel now that all of this made sense.  It is quite
easy to see how the situation transpired:
 
* The cases of possible ineligibility were discovered and reported to the AD.
* The AD chose to review the situation but not tell the coaches immediately
- possibly in case a review showed that the initial analysis was incorrect.
I believe there was an internal memo produced which showed that the AD did
not intend to tell the coaches right away.
* Several days after Tardif played, it was determined that the initial
analysis was correct and that Tardif was not eligible to have played.
* The coaches were then told and the forfeits were announced.
 
The problem was that the coaches should have been at least informed that
their athletes *might* have been ineligible.  Since they were left out of
the loop, the situation was magnified by allowing at least Tardif to play
while some members of the administration knew he might have been
ineligible.
 
Charles and some others may believe that Walsh was lying and that he played
Tardif against BU knowing that he was ineligible.  I do not believe this
would have made sense.  There was nothing to gain.  It is true that the
fact that the report Maine issued recently seems to indicate instances
where Walsh knowingly violated rules, certainly might make it difficult for
some people to believe he did not do so in this case as well.  But I think
I have strong reasons for my opinion, reasons that are based more in fact
than a general feeling that he must have been lying here too.  As Mike
says, no evidence has been produced that shows that Walsh knowingly played
Tardif while ineligible, while there is evidence that shows the opposite
(again, the memo, whose specifics I cannot recall).
 
I'll stand by my view that while Walsh deserves criticism for other rule
violations that transpired under him, it is still very wrong to charge him
with knowingly violating the rules in this case.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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