The six Big Ten hockey schools have submitted legislation to the NCAA that would lower the age limit for incoming recruits from 21 to 20 years old, which would mean any enrolling in college after the age of 20 would lose one year of eligibility for each year.
Under current guidelines, a 21-year-old freshman has four years of eligibility.
If the Big Ten legislation is passed by a vote in April among the entire NCAA membership, a 21-year-old freshman would have only three years of eligibility.
The Big Ten didn’t confer with the other conferences about the legislation at the American Hockey Coaches Association convention in April in Florida, according to a story in College Hockey News.
But because the Big Ten is the only all-sports conference among the six Division I hockey conferences, it has the power to submit legislation directly to the NCAA for a vote.
Big Ten representatives are seeking more competitive balance, age-wise.
In a straw poll taken among NCAA Division I hockey coaches, the outcome was 49-11 against the legislation.
An argument against the legislation is that it’s self-serving for the Big Ten, which can compete for the top 17- and 18-year-olds because they have more resources.
Schools with limited resources can’t compete for those high-end 17- and 18-year-olds and compensate by recruiting older, more mature freshmen. That strategy has been used at the University of Maine.
UMaine coach Red Gendron is dead set against the legislation.
“If you’re going to try to change the rules, it should be for the betterment of the game,” said Gendron, who feels the legislation would hurt the game.
“When I look at the game, there is parity in college hockey. The evidence is that the last three years we have had first-time national champions [Yale, Union and Providence],” said Gendron. “And there have been teams who have made it to the Frozen Four who hadn’t made it before like RIT and Bemidji State.
“And I believe part of the reason there is parity in college hockey is because of the player pool such as it exists right now without having restrictions placed on it,” Gendron added. “Certain schools who may not have the resources to successfully compete for certain players [ages 17-18] are able to compete by having a larger player pool.”
UMaine’s freshman class includes four 21-year-olds, three 20-year-olds, a 19-year-old and an 18-year-old.
The Big Ten schools haven’t won a national championship since 2007. Yet they have 23 titles between them.
Gendron pointed out that Division I college hockey has the highest Academic Progress Rate in the country. The Academic Progress Rate, which has been in place since 2003, is based on players’ grades, their progress toward their degrees and their staying-in-school rate. It also takes into consideration players who leave school early but eventually finish their degrees.
NCAA statistics revealed that the four-year score of 985 (based on a scale up to 1,000), concluding with the 2013-14 season, tied men’s hockey with fencing and water polo among men’s sports, but hockey was the top score among sports with more than 22 teams.
“The point is there is nothing wrong with the way it is. We have kids graduating, and 30 percent of NHL players were trained at the college level so, obviously, college hockey has also served as a development program for elite players ,” Gendron said.
He is “distressed” that this proposal wasn’t first discussed with the other conferences.
“That’s not right. Hockey is unique because you have schools of varying resources and sizes, and you also have Division III schools with Division I hockey programs. To propose legislation without consulting other schools makes me wonder what their motivation is,” he said.