NCAA Rule 12.8.3.2 Delayed Enrollment – Seasons of Competition: Sports Other Than Men's Ice Hockey, Skiing and Tennis
In sports other than men's ice hockey, skiing and tennis a student athlete who does not enroll in a collegiate institution as a full-time student in a regular academic term during a one-year time period after his or her high school graduation date or a graduation date of his or her class (as determined by the first year of high school enrollment or the international equivalent) shall be subject to the following:
(a) The student athlete shall be charged with a season of intercollegiate eligibility for each calendar year after the one time period.
CSSA: Why are men's ice hockey, skiing and tennis allowed an extra year?
HOCKEY – There is a major business organized under the guidance of USA hockey called Junior Hockey. This is what leads to delayed enrollment in hockey. And now we have the National Hockey League (NHL). The NHL provides financial support to the Canadian Major Junior League teams, which the NCAA deems to be professional. Student athletes lose eligibility upon participation with these Major Junior Teams. The NHL is looking toward overlap of the NCAA and the CHL thereby enhancing their free minor league system quite contrary to the NCAA's mission of protecting student athletes from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises.
NEPSAC Schools need to be wary of these activities.
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CHALLENGING AND ELIMINATING DELAYED ENROLLMENTS
The Center for the Support of Student Athletes will lobby and seek changes related to these and other National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules to eliminate delayed enrollments and protect the interests of student athletes and their families:
NCAA Rule 12.8.3.5 Participation After 21st Birthday - Men's Ice Hockey and Skiing
In men's ice hockey and skiing any participation as an individual or team representative in organized sports competition by a student during each 12 month period after a student's 21st birthday and prior to the initial full-time enrollment in a collegiate institution shall count as one year of varsity competition in that sport.
CSSA: This allows a student athlete to play as a 22 year or 23 year old freshman with either three or four years of eligibility. Student athletes should be graduating at this age.
CONTROL AND DEFER
No one person sat down and designed what exists in men's college hockey today. It simply evolved. Older, experienced players can probably out-perform younger, inexperienced players, so why not have players do a form of red-shirting by taking a year in Juniors? If one year works in Juniors, why not do two years? Once one Division I college hockey program is saturated by products from the Juniors, other programs must respond to be competitive. Furthermore, why assess players who are coming out of secondary school? It makes sense to offer commitments only to players who have measured up to Junior competition.
Now, most Division I programs require the Junior route. If this works in Division I, maybe it would be advantageous for Division III programs to follow the same route? The practice spreads like a necessary cancer. Eager candidates for these fine colleges have no choice but to cooperate: now, the coaches have no choice to follow this route of delaying college educations in order to be competitive with winning teams and preserve job security.
Thus, we are now in a situation from which no one program can dare escape. With less control in hockey limiting the years played after secondary school than in other sports, the practice expands and will continue to expand – and for one purpose: winning hockey.
Certainly, delaying college educations does not serve valid preparation for degrees which most college hockey players need to succeed in their careers. We have remarkable colleges with superb academic programs accepting a system which does not serve education – in fact, it is counterproductive to valid education. A hockey player out of sequential academic preparation of his skills loses academic momentum.
What can be done to rescue men’s college hockey from involvement in programs which delays their players from the vital preparation needed to be ready to compete in the job market of today, a job market which can involve only a very few in successful, remunerative professional hockey careers?
Clearly, a first step would be to limit eligibility to five years after graduation from secondary school. College leadership needs to coalesce behind requirements which will make men’s college hockey programs an adjunct of the educational purpose of the institutions they represent. Without any control of this sort, the cancer will spread and men’s college hockey teams will become universally older, right up against the NCAA age limit, further delaying involvement in academic majors which are a necessity for most of the players involved.
American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA)