J writes:
 
>So, like the airlines, it seems that some colleges (at least BC anyway) have
>a problem in "overbooking" scholarships.  Perhaps the NC$$ needs to become
>involved in this situation, and adopt a regulation similar to the one imposed
>by the FAA on the airlines:
 
>Proposed Regulation Governing the Awarding of Athletic Scholarships
 
>In those cases where more scholar athletes elect to accept scholarships
>than are available, the institution is obliged to follow the following
>procedure.  Scholarships will be awarded on a "first come, first served" basis
>with determination based on the order that each scholar athlete is processed
>by the bursar/registar.  A college may offer incentives to the scholarship
>designees to relinguish their rights prior to processing. The minimum
>incentive would be one year's tuition at a university of the designee's choice.
>If more scholar athletes present for processing by the bursar than are
>available, the "bumped" student must be offered a four-year scholarship to the
>institution of the student's choice.  The student must of course meet the
>criteria for admission of the chosen university, and the granting of the
>scholarship does not automatically guarantee admission to said college.
 
There are some MAJOR problems with this type of proposal.  First, the "first
come, first served" idea could mean institutions would wind up having a "Hockey
Scholarship Line" similar to the RPI Hockey Line standing outside the
bursar/registrar for days or weeks.  These aren't concert tickets, they are
scholarships.
 
Second, this isn't quite like the airlines.  If you get bumped from a flight
involuntarily, the airline only has to get you to your destination without
placing any extra cost on the customer.  The airline's extra expenses may
include a one night hotel stay, which might cost the airline $50.  A four year
scholarship could cost upwards of $80-$100K.  And why would RPI give BC a break
on the incoming engineer?  RPI would recieve a full four year tuition.  And
what if the player got bumped from a less expensive state school?  It hardly
seems fair to the state school that a $40K hockey scholarship would turn into a
$80K scholarship while the opposite could happen for an RPI or Yale.
 
And third, this is NC$$ loophole central.  Can the bumped student play hockey
at the other university?  Wouldn't this put the new university over the
scholarship limit?  And if the student could play hockey, this proposal is just
begging for collusion.  Harvard, Wisconson, and CC could work a circle bump
[pardon the expression :-) ] so that each team in essence had 25 scholarship
players with the schools not really paying anything.
 
Well, I guess I've opened Pandora's box a little wider...
 
Dave Kaufman - RPI '91
 
LET'S GO RED!!