Grand Valley Ineligible Player & Forfeits

I can’t believe we have to resort to posting this information online anonymously in order to get the ACHA to take action, however it seems clear that the ACHA is not only going to try and sweep it under the rug, but that they were actually trying to hide it from the members. There is good information that GVSU played an ineligible goaltender for 4-5 games. His name is XXXXX XXXXXXX and is now listed as inactive on the GVSU roster. The ACHA was made aware of this problem and all games played with an ineligible player should be forfeits. Instead nothing was done and even worse no teams were even notified of the problem, so they can’t even react by asking questions and finding out what happened. Does anyone have more details about this? Can Sheriff shed some light on this? Commissioner Peacock should be ashamed for trying to hide this from membership.
#draintheswamp

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Drain the swap, GTFO haha. This is a message board about college students who play hockey. This is not the huff post or politico. Publicly shaming acha commissioners, and even worse, college students, on here is low. Sorry Phil, but you’re bang out of order mate. Lodge your complaints using the proper channels.

In other news, what were the scores and outcomes in the North this weekend and what are the up coming games?

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Wouldn’t those possible forfeits have a direct effect on the last ranking and the National auto-bid?

Aurora has an issue as well. They have an NCAA D3 player who played 4 years at that level. 3 years with Nothlands and 1 w/ AU. XXXXXX XXXXXX now plays on the Aurora Acha D2 team.

Interesting.

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Wouldn’t he have 1 year of eligibility left? Isn’t it 5 years? Genuinely asking, I’m unsure.

Not for 4 year NCAA guys. There’s a clear rule about it

Rumor is he was cleared to play by the Acha early in the season.

Your regional field is set. Go enjoy the hockey.

Next yr do whatever you want cuz guess what. It works as long as you ask

Here’s the rule:

Part 5 Article II Section 2E
A Men’s Division 2 student-athlete shall have five (5) years of ACHA eligibility. If, however, the student athlete was on an NCAA D1, or ACHA D1 roster at any level at any time for more than one (1) year two (2) semesters, the student-athlete is restricted to four (4) years of ACHA Men’s Division 2 play, minus his time at the NCAA or Canadian University (CIAU) level. [2016]

Although, I don’t think it’s uncommon for a waiver to be granted under certain circumstances.

An example could be a player who suffered a season ending injury that cut their NCAA career short might be granted a waiver to play one season in the ACHA. You have to submit a request to the ACHA and they come back with a decision.

I don’t know the details surrounding this particular case.

The rule you just stated appears to say that it applies to NCAA D1 and not NCAA D3. In which case the Aurora player would be good to go?

I am not here to shame anyone… I am here to ensure that we all play by the same rules.

As per the ACHA handbook: “D. Team Behavior 1. Any Member Program using an ineligible player in any game shall forfeit the game in which the player participated and may be subject to suspension of membership benefits by action of the ACHA Board of Directors or Commissioner. [2012]”

Grand Valley clearly used an ineligible player in 4-5 games this semester. A quick phone call to any player on the team and we found this information out and apparently the registrar’s report which was sent to the ACHA also confirms it.

It is not the job of the membership to report these kind of incidents - it’s the job of the ACHA officials to seek them out, deal with them, and report them to membership. To your point, if a team launches an official complaint, it becomes very political because the ACHA has a habit of letting the membership know where the complaint came from through leaks. The ACHA is wrong on this occasion and their decision which was made in secrecy affects all of the teams in the league.

There has been a precedent set here for many years, not to mention the rule is in black and white in the ACHA handbook. Ineligible players result in forfeits. Aurora University should be getting an auto-bid to Nationals (whether they are a team that deserves it is another conversation - might be time to overhaul computer rankings) and saving themselves the $5,000-$7,500 that the trip to regionals is going to cost them. St. Louis University who was ranked 11th may have a case that they could have made regionals based on the results of computer rankings with Grand Valley having those forfeits. All of the matchups in the Central regionals should be different. And what about all of the teams that would have to accept a forfeit from Grand Valley and how that would have affected their computer rankings in other regions. It shows how complicated of a problem this was for the ACHA and no doubt there is no perfect solution.

Concealing the information from the membership was probably the only solution that should never have been considered. This entire situation is the very reason why the ACHA cannot earn legitimacy. If the league was followed by the main stream press, they would all be confused and reporting on corruption within the ACHA leadership. We cannot step forward until we clean up the way we do things. The membership should have been notified of the situation and the decision which then allows members the right to appeal the decision.

Nevertheless, I am told that a few teams are as disgusted as me and that they are giving the ACHA until Wednesday, February 22, 2017 to release the information and have membership involved with voting on a resolution of they have a lawyer (parent from the team) willing to file a motion for an injunction to delay regionals until a judge can review the ACHA by-laws and make a summary judgement. None of this would have happened if the ACHA was transparent and just had the Central region teams or membership involved in fixing the problem. They make their own mess! Sheriff replies to every post on this message board about television appearances, branding, regionals auto bid from the west, etc… and I guarantee you it will be crickets from him on this one. You guys are deep into it on this one and I guess some people just need to be taught the lesson the hard way. Should be an interesting week, one which the ACHA could get ahead of if they do the right thing before being forced to do so by membership.

There is also this rule:

Part 5 Article II Section 1B
An NCAA player who has completed his NCAA D3 eligibility (four years) shall not be permitted to participate at on an ACHA team at the university where he completed his NCAA career.

Mr XXXXXX from Aurora played in 16 NCAA D3 games or more for all 4 seasons according to elite prospects website.

Cleared to play this yr at the Acha D2 level.

Good for you AU find them loopholes.

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make sure you get all of the facts before posting on this. Grand Valley is at no fault and the acha has been aware since this came up.

If Grand Valley played a truly ineligible player then they are at fault. If they were told that a player that appears ineligible (according to league by-laws) was cleared as eligible then the ACHA is at fault. So which one is it?

Could someone please explain eligibility and freshman forgiveness? what makes a player ineligible?

The was an instant in years past where something like this had happened… But, because the team and player had all the proper paperwork filled out and approved by the ACHA, they had to let him play. Idk if the kid from GVSU technically shouldn’t be eligible, but if they went through all the proper channels and approvals, there’s nothing anyone can do as the ACHA already cleared him.

They don’t have to let him play. They could also say “hey, we made a mistake and he is no longer eligible.” But someone either gave false info or wasn’t paying attention at the ACHA. It’s not just on the ACHA to make sure each player is eligible, that is on the teams as well. Some teams have integrity and ethics, some don’t.

Does anyone know if the Central Games will be available to see or hear online? I have not found a website that lists anything other than the game times.

Nothing ruins college hockey more than parents who think college club hockey and the Natty Light Cup is little Johnnys Peewee B team.

Last I checked, everyone in this league is adults, some older than others, let the competing adults handle things. Just because not-so-little Johnny’s team didn’t make regionals doesn’t mean the world will end. It’s ok for your kid to get F&$K3D, its going to happen to them the rest of their lives

I can see both sides of the coin.

Will there be teams that knowingly/unknowingly break the rules and don’t get caught? I would say yes.

It’s not fair, but it happens on all levels of sports. The ACHA has limited resources, so I imagine there will be things that slip through the cracks on occasion. I understand that.

That being said, if the ACHA is made aware of an infraction through the correct avenues and within a reasonable time frame, I would hope they would take the appropriate actions to rectify the situation. If an individual/team is caught breaking the rules they should prepare for and accept the discipline that goes along with it.

I feel for guys like @Birdman & @Sheriff because I do believe they are attempting to do the “right” thing, but because they’ve made themselves so involved in the process they have painted themselves into a corner at times.

This is based on what I’ve seen bandied about on this forum, so it may not actually be true, but it’s definitely the perception that’s out there.

It shouldn’t be their job to determine how “sorry” a club/player is or what their true intentions were. Most entities that get caught are sorry…

Ultimately, we need to have good rules with predetermined, fair punishments that are enforced by those in charge.

This will help prevent the commissioners from having to make many judgment calls. On the other end, the ACHA should also be as transparent as possible, providding things like clearly defined flowcharts to clubs/conferences that help them determine a players eligibility, postseason requirements, ranking factors etc. for that season, that way there shouldn’t be any questions.

If you play an ineligible player, you forfeit. If your conference doesn’t hold it’s teams accountable, you lose your bid. If you play teams outside of the ACHA, they don’t count toward your ranking.

If your team/conference gets screwed and you want to improve the system, suggest a rule change and put it up for a vote and if everyone agrees that it should be fixed, it goes into effect at an agreed upon date.

There will always be winners and losers, but we should strive to have as equitable a playing field as possible.