Mike writes, in part:
>   ... pay the price for a mistake someone else made.  If anything,
>some sort of penalty should have been assessed to Maine instead, and
>only for being guilty of an oversight where perhaps they should have
>been more aware - certainly not an intentional oversight.  But as
>usual, the kids get hit harder than the school.
 
   I agree completely, Mike.  Cal was obviously given bad advice.
   Unfortunately, the punishment for Maine is not having Cal for 14
   games ...  and that penalizes Cal for something Maine apparently did.
 
   I say "apparently" because I'm not sure we know the whole story yet.
   I'll call Maine's "NCAA Compliance Officer" tomorrow to try to get a
   more accurate and complete picture.
 
   So far I've hear 3 stories.  One was relayed (accurately) to us by
   Ryan.  Another was relayed by me from remarks made by Coach Walsh at
   a banquet last Saturday night.  Yet a third surfaced today in the
   Bangor Daily News.  I don't have the newspaper with me, but it
   explicitly said that the NCAA penalty was because Cal did not have
   the required 365 days at Maine after transferring.  The BDN stated
   that the NCAA considered "Bangor Community College of the University
   of Maine" (aka BCC) as a 2 year college and so time spent there did
   not count.  This would imply that Cal came to Maine in the Fall of
   1990 and after one semester at BCC transferred to the Orono campus for
   the 2nd semester.  I have not verified this, however.
 
   To further make accuracy with respect to this case a joke, it has been
   reported all over the place that Cal will be eligible for the Dec 10th
   game at Portland with UNH ... but even including the Team USA and
   Acadia University games ... that game will be the 14th game this
   season.
 
   So for what it's worth, I have Paul Kariya leaving for Team Canada
   on Dec 11 and Cal Ingraham playing his first game of the season
   on Dec 12th in Orono with UMass--Lowell.  Unless Paul returns after
   the Olympics, Cal and Paul will not play together this season. :-(
 
Wayne (maybe I'll even start using those $$s in NCAA) Smith
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