Willie Hsiung writes:
>After reading some articles about NCAA eligibility and the Olympics that
>were posted a few months ago, I'm just wondering if NCAA hockey players
>have only four years of eligibility.
 
They do.
 
>                                      The reason why I'm asking this was
>while I was looking through the stats of former NMU defenseman Brad Werenka
>this summer, it showed that he already played four seasons for NMU before
>last season, though he only played a few games in his 4th season.
>Is a player allowed to play five years of college hockey?
 
The rule on this as I understand it is that if a player suits up for less
than a certain percentage of the total games his team plays that season (I
think it's 20%), then it will not count as a "season" of eligibility.  So if
Werenka played in "a few" of NMU's somewhere-around-40 games in his 4th
year, that would not count as one of his four seasons of eligibility.  I
think this applies to all college sports, not just hockey.  Note that the
player has to be *completely* out of action for the rest of the season,
meaning he could not be "rehabilitating" by playing in JV games, and
probably meaning he could not participate in practices.
 
Knowing the NCAA, I suspect there are refinements to this rule dealing with
different reasons for a player missing the games.  Maybe if a player misses
all but a few games with an injury, that season doesn't have to count as one
of his allotted four, but if he gets suspended by the team or is ruled aca-
demically ineligible, then it does.
--
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
 
"LOST DOG:  3 legs, blind in left eye, missing right ear, tail broken,
 recently castrated... answers to name of 'Lucky'."
-- poster seen recently in a local coffee shop, among other places