I feel compelled to respond to this since I was probably the one who
planted the idea in many people's minds that Maine might have to
forfeit their 1993 championship.
 
First, I should point out that my attempt was merely to explain the
situation as I saw it, and to see if anyone else could explain the
inconsistencies that appeared to exist.  I still have some questions,
because I believe the whole thing is very vague.  But the
interpretation of the situation by Maine has, as I understand it, been
upheld by the NC$$.  That is what counts.
 
Now...in my strong opinion, the calls by some for Maine to forfeit its
1993 title based on any of the four situations uncovered within the
last year - Ingraham, Tory, Tardif, and Latendresse - are nothing
short of ludicrous and should be viewed as such.
 
There is no comparison to the 1992 Wisconsin situation in any way,
shape or form.  That dealt with violations that existed during the
1991-92 season.  As such, forfeiture of that team's second place finish
is very consistent with the way the NC$$ has handled similar
occurrences.
 
To this date, there is NO evidence suggesting that any violations or
ineligibility of players took place at Maine during the 1992-93
season.  And as far as the Latendresse case goes, the NC$$ has
apparently already ruled that he *was* eligible to play that season,
but that he only had one more year of eligibility after that.  I
believe Wayne said this.  This may have been discovered a little late,
but not so late that he ever actually played in a game while the NC$$
considered him to be ineligible to do so.
 
It is rather common knowledge that the NC$$ has been conducting an
investigation of the program at Maine for a little while now.  No one
here knows what the outcome of that investigation will be.  And few of
us, if any, know what the investigation actually entails, so public
speculation is worthless.
 
Once again, we have no evidence before us that there were any
violations during the 1992-93 season at Maine.  Given that, I am
disappointed to see people advocating the arbitrary removal of their
national championship, which was earned fairly as far as any of us
know.  Everyone has a right to his/her opinion, but I suppose I
expected more than this from folks.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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