I just got back from my honeymoon (no, really, less than an hour ago; are my
priorities in order, or what?) and hadn't been in touch for several days
before that.  So, responses to several posts follow.
 
Pat Gonzales wrote:
 
> The resignation appears to be in the wake of a Minneapolis Star Tribune "
> expose"
>  of irregularities in the athletics department at UM-Duluth, including the
> payoff
>  of a woman who had had "relations" with a potential foreign-student hockey
>  recruit, if I recall correctly.
 
The irregularities involved are several, the two major ones are as follows:
 
1) A booster was diverting money from the official booster club to his
personal business.  As far as I know, none of it was going to players, so the
NCAA probably won't get involved.  Nevertheless, it seems to me that someone
in the athletic department ought to have been keeping an eye on things and
ultimately, the AD has to take the fall for this.
 
2) The foreign hockey player mentioned above.  I do not believe that he was a
potential recruit.  Rather, he was a Russian player in the area for a
tournament.  While here, he was accused of assaulting a female UMD student.
 The report is that Macleod attempted to pay money to the student to get her
to drop charges in the case.  Again, it's not likely to bring NCAA sanctions,
but local authorities were looking into the matter.  Whether they have made
any determination, I have not  heard.  (See above reasons for being out of
the loop.)
 
All of this calls into question Bruce Macleod's administrative capacities.  I
suspect that he didn't just jump from UMD, but got something of a push.
 There hasn't been anything notably bad about his tenure as WCHA comissioner,
but my confidence isn't real high heading into what is obviously an important
transition period.
 
J. Michael Neal
 
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