Carol White writes:
>Also, since he is directly connected to a school in the league, what possible
>conflicts of interest might arise?
 
That's a good question.  It would probably depend on what powers the
commissioner of the WCHA has, and I don't know how this differs from
the other conferences.
 
There were allegations by some that since Bob DeGregorio was both HE
commish and Merrimack AD, his decisions were bound to be or even were
a conflict of interest.  My personal opinion is that DeGregorio is a
man of sufficient integrity that he is able to separate his duties as
Merrimack AD and as HE commish.  Even in the HE vs. Maine situation of
a couple of months ago, while Shawn Walsh's affidavit stated his
opinion that DeGregorio had a conflict of interest because he was
"actively seeking to become the permanent Commissioner", DeGregorio's
integrity regarding his also being Merrimack AD was never called into
question.  In fact, major decisions like the one HE made to suspend
Maine from the playoffs are actually made by the board of directors
and not the commissioner unilaterally.  The board consists of all of
the league's ADs.  This has always been the way things have been done
in HE.
 
Now, where a possible conflict may arise that I can see, is if the
commissioner needs to rule on something that may affect his own team
(where he is also employed by one of the teams, as McLeod will be and
DeGregorio currently is).  For example, in 1988 and 1989 then-commish
Stu Haskell handed down suspensions to players involved in brawls.
Haskell was not employed by any of HE's teams.  However, suppose
Minnesota-Duluth were to be involved in a brawl, or Merrimack.  Or,
suppose one of the teams battling for position with UMD or MC were
involved in a brawl.  If the commissioner were to hand down a ruling
that seemed to benefit his team, then there would certainly be charges
of conflict of interest, IMO.
 
But that's why it is up to the conferences to select people who they
believe to be above reproach, as I believe HE and the WCHA have done.
 
BTW, I will add my congratulations and best wishes to Bruce McLeod.  I
don't know much of him other than his work with the selection
committee, but just from that, I believe he was a good choice.
---                                                                 ---
Mike Machnik                                          [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMM* 11/13/93