Now that the recent spate of ref-bashing and alma mater woofing has (thankfully) subsided, perhaps we can engage a discussion on more substative matters of interest to college hockey. Following are some verbatim quotes and paraphrases re: recent NC$$ legislation, taken from John Connolly's "Hockey Notes" column in the 18 January Boston _Herald_ [parenthetical comments are mine - Jim]: Coaches Pokecheck Prop. 31 -------------------------- "One of the pieces of legislation passed at the recent NCAA Convention held in Dallas which is sure to impact on college hockey is the so-called Proposition 31 rule. This rule - which takes effect on Aug. 1 - requires that financial aid for players receiving any kind of support be limited to not more than 30 athletes [I'm confused - surely most DivI football schools hand out more than 30 scholarships/year ??]. It further mandates that athletes who participate in more than one sport, and who receive financial aid, be listed under the guidelines of the hockey program, which now will be limited to 18 full scholarships [down from the current limit of 20 for DivI programs] .... Reportedly, the WCHA was the formal sponsor of Prop. 31. Nearly every college hockey sextet has used players on scholarship from another sport. For instance, former players Mike Kelfer and John Bradley all received BU baseball scholarships .... Current Maine junior right wing Justin Tomberlin hit 0.262 with 4 homers and 23 RBI as a platooned out- fielder on scholarship for the Maine baseball team. He currently has 15 points in 13 games for S. Walsh's #1 ranked Black Bear hockey squad. BC hockey in the past has used baseball scholarship players such as Shawn Kennedy and Hobey Baker Award recipient David Emma, a catcher. Ex-PC co- captain Mike Boback was on a Friar golf scholarship as a freshman. Prop. 31 has raised the ire of most coaches because of the myriad ways it might impact on the college game. The new rule virtually prohibits the two-sport athlete, while threatening the walk-on athlete with extinction. Players like Maine's Tomberlin and BU defenseman Dan Donato, a baseball player and brother of Bruins forward Ted Donato [collegian under Cleary at Harvard] may find themselves out in the cold when it comes to hockey if the 18-scholarship limit has been reached. Coaches like New Hampshire's Dick Umile are suddenly unsure of the status regarding some recruits, in- cluding a hot goaltending prospect [Brian Larochelle, 58-5-1 at Trinity High School, now enrolled as a postgraduate at Phillips Exeter Academy] who happens to play baseball [UNH has also skated scholarship athletes in the past who were officially on baseball or lacrosse scholarships]. BU coach Jack Parker, who was most vocal in his criticism of the NCAA, called Proposition 31 "absolute absurdity." "The NCAA doesn't care one bit about hockey," Parker said. "I expect once again for hockey to lie down and get slapped in the face and do nothing. I'm sick and tired of fighting the NCAA. If we were smart, we'd stop playing NCAA hockey and the next day start our own brand of hockey .... Maine coach Shawn Walsh said hockey's position has become "catastrophic." "I didn't think that the high authorities would go for it," Walsh said. "We're so low on the totem pole that maybe we as hockey partners ought to find a new totem pole." First- year BC hockey coach Steve Cedorchuk viewed Prop. 31 with a jaundiced eye and said, "maybe we can be the first to have a hockey federation within the NCAA. That, to me, is the logical way to go. You can see where the college CEOs are coming from - it's cost-cutting." ---- End material from the "Herald" ----------------- Some questions: 1) How widespread is this practice (athletes on scholarship in one sport playing in another to circumvent scholarship restrictions) in the WCHA and CCHA ?? I'd wager that the Big Ten schools, with hundreds of athletes competing in dozens of sports, would have quite a few cross- sport scholarship athletes. Why would the WCHA now have proposed that this practice be abolished; after all, both sports in which the athlete participates presumably benefit, and it frees up a scholarship for some- one else ?? _Sports Illustrated_ and other like magazines frequently mention the 2 or 3 sport affiliation of many star athletes it profiles (such as point guards and wide receivers on track scholarships, or the FSU starting quarterback who's also a Seminole starting b-ball guard); will these arrangements be terminated as well ?? 2) Will this be the Last Straw that finally forces college hockey to renounce the NC$$ and form their own Organizing Body ?? Walsh and Parker have gone on record before in favor of independence from the NC$$, and while many coaches are reluctant to abandon the NC$$ entirely (see Cedorchuk comments above), at appears that sentiment is building for a show-down of some kind. It's my opinion that independence from the NC$$ would have already happened were it not for fear by college administrators that such a move would unleash a torrent of similar defections by, say, other regional sports such as wrestling or lacrosse that also have become disaffected with the NC$$ preoccupation with football and basket- ball. If nothing else, the NC$$ provides a unified framework under which a school can organize its sports participation; no one is anxious to see that replaced by a collection of single-sport governing bodies with their own rules/regulations that may/may not have anything in common with another. Comments ?? -- Jim Go Blue !!