While we're talking about eligibility rules, here's a story for you:
According to the _Cornell Daily Sun_, Big Red forward Jiri Kloboucek, who
lit up the scoreboard with a natural hat trick during the Red-White game,
had to sit out last season due to a "misunderstanding" of the eligibility
rules.  Apparently, before coming to Cornell last year, he played three
exhibition games in Canada with a Junior A team, which under NCAA rules
would disqualify him from playing college hockey.  However, Cornell
petitioned for his reinstatement, since at the time, Kloboucek did not speak
English and would not have understood the difference between Junior A (which
is considered pro by the NCAA) and Tier II (which is not).  The NCAA re-
stored Kloboucek's eligibility, but because of the three exhibition games he
played in, he must sit out Cornell's first three games of the season.  This
means that, assuming next Saturday's exhibition against Waterloo can be
counted as one of the games sat out, Kloboucek will join the team for its
November 20th game at St. Lawrence.
 
I suspect that we're going to hear about more of this type of thing as the
European college player becomes more common.  Something similar happened at
Cornell five years ago, when then-freshman goaltender Corrie D'Alessio had
to sit out two games because he had suited up for a pair of games with a
Junior A team.
--
Bill Fenwick                        |  Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94        |  [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
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