OK, I pored through the NC$$ Manual tonight and came up with the
following.
 
12.2.3.2.4.1 deals with the limitation on restoration of eligibility
for Major Junior A Ice Hockey, as Charlie pointed out.  "...such
individual shall be denied at least the first year of intercollegiate
athletics competition in the sport of ice hockey at the certifying
institution and shall be charged with the loss of at least one season
of eligibility in the sport of ice hockey."
 
14.3.2.1.1 deals with DivI partial qualifiers (which apparently
Latendresse was because of his SATs).  "An entering freshman...who is
a partial qualifier...may not practice or compete during the first
academic year in residence."  And according to 14.3.3(a), partial
qualifiers in DivI have only three seasons in which they may compete.
 
I cannot find anything which says that when two or more conditions
affecting eligibility apply simultaneously, they can be served
concurrently.  However, I also cannot find anything which says they
CANNOT.
 
John Forsyth's post notes that Maine's (current?) NC$$ compliance officer
determined that the rules required Latendresse to sit out two years.
I note, however, that I haven't heard that this was the NC$$'s
determination.
 
14.12.1 reads, "If a student-athlete is ineligible under the
provisions of the constitution, by-laws or other regulations of the
Association, the institution shall be obligated to apply immediately
the applicable rule and to withhold the student-athlete from all
intercollegiate competition."
 
To me, this means that if Latendresse did have to sit out two years,
then they would have to have taken place immediately upon his
enrollment at Maine.  He sat out his first year, 1991-92, as well as
the first four games of 1992-93 (for the four games of Junior A he
played in 1990-91).
 
The question of concurrency seems to be one that only the NC$$ can
rule on.  I'm not sure what would have led Maine's compliance officer
to reach the decision she did, since as I said, I can find nothing to
provide definitive evidence on this one way or the other.
 
The closest I can come is the following: if the partial qualifier rule
is applied first, then Latendresse was not eligible for competition in
1991-92 (14.3.2.1.1).  He would have then had three seasons of
eligibility (14.3.3(a)) beginning in 1992-93.  But then, applying
12.2.3.2.4.1, he would be denied his first season of competition and
be charged with the loss of (at least) one season, bringing him to
two.
 
The key then becomes 14.12.1, which says that the institution must
apply the applicable rule and withhold the SA from competition.  That
would have been in 1992-93.  Nothing I can find indicates that the
extra year in Latendresse's case can be "put off", as some have wondered.
 
If this is the line of reasoning that is followed by the NC$$, and I
must stress that I have *not* heard that it is, then it does seem as
if Latendresse would have been ineligible to play all of the 40 games
he played during Maine's championship season, including the 3 NC$$
tournament games.  I believe the only way this could not happen, would
be if the NC$$ ruled that it was OK to have both seasons of his
ineligibility occur at once.  That would run counter to the interpretation
that the compliance officer came to.
 
I certainly welcome other interpretations or comments from people more
enlightened than I am.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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