Paulette writes:
 
>In the Daily Sun article which Bill Fenwick posted, it mentioned that
>the players will have their eligibility restored upon repayment of
>services received.  Now I assume that they just found out the ruling no
>more than a couple of days ago and have to make the repayment before they
>can play in the exhibition game eight days from now.  That means they
>each have to cough up $5000 for room and board alone
 
No, that's not the case.  The Sun article was unclear on this point, but the
players will not have to cover room and board because, under the booster
housing arrangement, that amount was deducted from their financial aid
packages.  So the boosters in effect were not providing rent-free housing,
which would have been a major violation.  (Cornell's housing program was OK
when it was investigated ten years ago, but a rules interpretation changed
in the meantime)
 
The players *do* have to cover the amount of "extra" benefits they got --
things like occasional meals, rides to campus, gifts, TV use (I dunno, maybe
the players were using it for some sort of "Wayne's World" cable-access show
or something :-) and the like.  Cornell and the NC$$ worked out a dollar
value for each item or service which constituted a "benefit."  The average
amount owed is about $38, according to _The Ithaca Journal_.  There's even a
payment schedule:  the affected players must make an initial payment of some
amount in order to be eligible for the first game (11/12 at Dartmouth --
apparently, next Saturday's exhibition doesn't count), and the full amount
has to be paid off by December 31.
 
Who'da thunk you'd have to take an accounting class to follow college
hockey? :-)
--
Bill Fenwick                        |  Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94        |  [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
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 should keep in mind that these people also like to eat snails."
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