Au contraire, mon ami.  I must beg to differ.


> This is
> big time college hockey and Welch was not recruited for his
> academic prowess
> or given a free ride based upon his keen intellect and there
> are any number
> of Minnesotans who would never be admitted to Gopher U with
> Welch's (or many
> of his teammates) his grades and low test scores-so Lucia
> recruits to win not
> to ennoble scholars. The hypocrisy of taking marginal
> "students" loading them
> up with the rigors of a sport like hockey and then taking the
> athlete to task
> is all part of the Faustian bargain that big time college
> athletics and
> universities have made with each other-give me a break.
>

Consider that the whole idea of going to college is to get a college degree.  Perhaps more so in hockey than some other college sports, it is not a training ground for the NHL.  Sure, Lucia recruits to win - that is part of his job.  Perhaps Welch would have made it in college if he were not playing hockey, but equally perhaps he would not have had the chance without the hockey scholarship ride.  Lucia gave him a chance.  Welch, apparently, was unable to produce, at least academically even though most (all?) of his teammates could.  Lucia acknowledged that the scholarship, while given for hockey prowess, was not the be-all and end-all of college existence and did not allow Welch to hang around to produce a little bit more hockey for the Gophs.

Thus, from my standpoint, this isn't hypocrisy at all.  To let him STAY would have been hypocritical.  Kudos to Lucia.