USA Hockey held a meeting of the Tier III Junior Council Caucus in Chicago that concluded on Wednesday. While these meetings are a regular occurrence, some of the topics discussed were not.
Of particular note is the language regarding Illegal Scholarships in Tier III hockey.
USA Hockey has proposed the following language for publication in the Annual Guide regarding the issue. New language is in bold font:
(2) Team Individual Player Scholarships Prohibited
No team scholarships/financial discounts shall be allowed to any individual player based upon his skill and ability or game performances, without that individual player performing meaningful, productive work in exchange therefore off the ice and away from team competition. (See NCAA Division I Manual, By Law Article XII – Amateurism, Section 12.1-General Regulations, Sub Section 12.1.1 – Amateur Status (a)). Any Tuition-based Junior team and involved team personnel, including ownership, deemed to have violated this “Scholarship” provision shall be subject to the following penalties;
a) A fine not to exceed $25,000 per occurrence
b) Immediate disqualification from post-season League and National Tournament Competition
c) Team: a suspension from all sanctioned USA Hockey Junior competition for a period not to exceed 5 years.
d) Team Personnel, including Team Owners; Shall be suspended from management, coaching, scouting, or service of any kind in all USA Hockey Junior programs for a period not to exceed 5 years.
While all of this new language would appear to address the issue, the language really has no bite to it. It is a lot of threat with no way of enforcing or proving it.
How will anyone prove that scholarships are being provided, or how much of a scholarship is being provided?
Meaningful work?!
This is the problem with the whole scholarship issue. This phrase and its inclusion in the USA Hockey Annual Guide gives license to any Tier III operators to make things up as they go along. What is “meaningful”? What should one person be paid for “meaningful work”?
In college, every person is allowed to and encouraged to apply for Student Financial Aid. There is a specific application, a specific formula, and everyone is open to apply. This is how aid is given to or denied to students.
Why should it be any different for Tier III Junior Hockey?
Lets just say that a teams Tuition is $8500 for the season. Then lets add in $350 a month for billet over 7 months. We are looking at close to $11,000 for that player to play on this team. These are pretty close numbers to the national averages.
Lets say the team also owns the ice arena the team plays in. This is a very common scenario. Over the course of 7 months, the player would be paying down a debt of close to $11,000. This is around $1700 per month. At $10 an hour this requires the player to be working full-time at the arena to just pay for his hockey.
Now considering the hockey players schedule with practice, gym time, possibly school, road trips, community service work, time for sleep and proper nutrition. It is impossible for a player to maintain that schedule and the “meaningful work” to pay off his fees. It becomes even more impossible when multiple players are allegedly on the same “scholarship” program because there is not enough work at an arena to pull this scam off.
What happens if all the other arena workers are only getting paid $8.00 an hour? Is it fair to give the players more than a regular employee so that they can pay off their fees quicker? No, that would be a clear violation of NCAA rules.
Are players being provided appropriate IRS 1099 or W-2 forms for this meaningful work? The law requires that taxes be paid on this kind of income.
USA Hockey must close this scholarship loop-hole.
Any scholarship money must be available to every player, and based on an application system no different from any NCAA application for financial aid. Teams can not be allowed to choose who they give scholarship money to. That is allowing teams to make offers to players based on their athletic ability.
Any scholarship application must conform to NCAA standards, and include financial as well as educational information. A 1.5 GPA player should never get assistance, and families making certain income levels should never get assistance.
While the threat of the $25,000.00 penalty and suspensions is all well and good, USA Hockey has not put in place any standards or mechanisms to catch people breaking the rules. What are the standards? Who will investigate? What is the process for investigation? Who hands out the penalty?
Most importantly how does all of this fall under someones oversight? And how does that get paid for?
USA Hockey must get a full time person to investigate and manage all of these applications for scholarships, investigations of illegal scholarships and the administration of penalties for those who are caught. If every Tier III junior hockey team paid an additional $500 per year, this could easily be accomplished. Tier III teams should have no problem approving this measure if it ensures that someone actually has the authority and responsibility of investigating and punshing violators.
The wheel does not have to be re-invented here. The process is not a new one. All it takes is some organization and some enforcement. It starts with standards and the removal of the “meaningful work” phrase.
Joseph Kolodziej – Publisher
