Before we ALL get carried away with "Maine-gate" here,
and all of the tourney banning and litigation "crap" that
goes along with it, consider the following:
 
1. Until the Tory/Ingraham/Tardif cases this "year" (the
Ingraham case occurring 2 years ago but discovered this year),
how has the Maine program handled itself?
 
Except for the unfortunate "hockey-factory" Ferraro comment last
year, I think what visitors have   seen is a classy program with a
coach that has a fierce devotion for college hockey.  Team members
and fans that have traveled up here have come away with the
feeling that we do things right, from our treatment of team members
while they're here to our treatment of visiting officials and
fans.  Walsh has built a solid program with a solid fan base and
no prior record of recruiting/eligibility problems.
Those of you who have had first-hand experience, both
as fans, players, officials, or the press, can attest to this.
 
2. What is the "moral severity" of the infractions?
 
a. The Tory case:  Walsh certainly exhibited some poor judgement in
this matter, BUT he made every effort to straighten it out, he's
certainly dedicated to making sure Tory gets a fair shake out of
this, and he HAS apologized to the Maine fans.  This is Walsh's
ONLY blunder in ANY of the stuff that is contributing to Maine's
house being "out of order".
 
b. The Ingraham case: this was a strange one in that Ingraham
transferred from the Air Force Academy and then didn't take
enough credits during the time he sat out waiting to play for
Maine.  I point to three problems here: (1) the compliance
officer making a blunder, (2) Ingraham should have checked the
rules for himself, and (3) there should have been checks within
the athletic dept. to catch the blunder.  But there doesn't
seem to be an attempt on anyone's part to "get away with
anything".
 
c. The Tardif case: again a non-normal case in that Tardif was
a grad student, the school minimum credits for a grad student
was 6 credits, and the NCAA minimum was 8.  Again we have the
same three problems as with Ingraham.  Again, there doesn't seem
to be any hidden attempt to "get away with anything".  In fact
Tardif is a model grad student.
 
Note that I see NO money under the table, NO booster
improprieties, no mistreatment of players.  In summary, none
of the stuff that has made national headlines over the past few
years around College athletics.
 
3. Is Maine getting it's house in order?
 
a. In terms of the Tory infraction, Walsh has explained why he felt
recruiting Tory was ok, he's admitted his mistakes in the matter,
the University AND the NCAA have dealt out punishment, and that's
seemingly where it ended. The house seemingly was "put inorder".
 
b. In terms of the Ingraham/Tory cases, both of which are due to
(1) compliance officer errors, and (2) lack of checks in the
athletic dept., the administration has devoted a good deal of time
this semester to "getting the house in order".  Due in part to
the errors and due in part to how the athletic dept. has handled
itself with the errors, the compliance officer has been re-assigned,
the AD has been put on indefinate suspension, and an independent
auditor has been brought in to review athletic dept. procedures.
It seems that Maine is doing everything possible to "get its house
in order.
 
 
4. What is the HE tourney banning and resulting litigation based
on?
 
It seems that the primary question is whether or not Maine has
its house in order.  From my perspective here on the campus they
are working VERY HARD at doing so.  But I'd rather not take sides
in the issue.  The HE officials feel that they need to participate
in "sending a message" to the athletic dept.  The University feels
that its been working damn hard to clean up what are procedural
inadequacies in the athletic department.
 
5. What should the long range ramifications of this "confrontation"
be?
 
In my view, there shouldn't be any.  The people up here feel that
they're doing everything possible to get procedural things in order.
Those who feel the need to carry this around with them for a
longer period of time should do so with the facts in hand, and
a knowledge of the integrity of the people up here.
 
Larry Latour
UMaine