CHL/NCAA

[OMG67]

And you’re probably betting your 1st rounders or super elites will never use those packages. And would NCAA scholarships include housing? To me that is huge difference. But with the NCAA allowing CHL players in now I don’t know how much incentive there is to make changes to the education package

A “Full Ride” Scholarship “typically” is valued high enough to cover all direct fees associated to the education including Tuition, on campus housing and a food package. Indirect Fees that do not appear on the Invoice do not; however, most D1 schools have a Student Assistance Fund that helps pay for some of the indirect expenses like Textbooks, Clothing, Family Emergencies etc.

Every Scholarship is awarded on an annual basis and renewed at the discretion of the coaching staff and sports director prior to the start of the school year and the Student is informed in writing by July 1.

The question surrounding this issue relates to stacking scholarships. Academic and Athletic Scholarships can be stacked and each institution may have its own policy. However, the stacking of multiple Sports Scholarships, which is what we are sort of referring to above seems to create a conflict. My personal opinion is that this would not be stacking a scholarship. The scholarship is earned as compensation for previous work. So, really, this would be an academic scholarship and probably should be considered eligible for stacking. If you can gain financial aide and/or academic scholarships to go toward a partial athletic scholarship, I don’t see why there would be a conflict for CHL players. The CHL scholarship does not restrict where you can go to school. It only restricts the VALUE of the scholarship based on the closest institution to your home town. So, there is no competitive reason the scholarship could not be stacked.

I understand there is a rule but I imagine that rule would be addressed at some point.

 

[Corso]

A “Full Ride” Scholarship “typically” is valued high enough to cover all direct fees associated to the education including Tuition, on campus housing and a food package. Indirect Fees that do not appear on the Invoice do not; however, most D1 schools have a Student Assistance Fund that helps pay for some of the indirect expenses like Textbooks, Clothing, Family Emergencies etc.

Every Scholarship is awarded on an annual basis and renewed at the discretion of the coaching staff and sports director prior to the start of the school year and the Student is informed in writing by July 1.

The question surrounding this issue relates to stacking scholarships. Academic and Athletic Scholarships can be stacked and each institution may have its own policy. However, the stacking of multiple Sports Scholarships, which is what we are sort of referring to above seems to create a conflict. My personal opinion is that this would not be stacking a scholarship. The scholarship is earned as compensation for previous work. So, really, this would be an academic scholarship and probably should be considered eligible for stacking. If you can gain financial aide and/or academic scholarships to go toward a partial athletic scholarship, I don’t see why there would be a conflict for CHL players. The CHL scholarship does not restrict where you can go to school. It only restricts the VALUE of the scholarship based on the closest institution to your home town. So, there is no competitive reason the scholarship could not be stacked.

I understand there is a rule but I imagine that rule would be addressed at some point.

If the CHL is angling to set itself up as the premier destination for high end talent, they will want to attract the very best American born players (at the expense of both the NTDP and the USHL) and a way they can do this is by offering a pay out on scholarship packages to high end players that want to go the NCAA route. So rather than just pay their tuition, that may be a violation of NCAA stipulations, the leagues can simply offer them a cash payout, equivalent to the value of tuition and books and fees for a given school year. Such money would go directly to the player and not the school.

 

[OMG67]

If the CHL is angling to set itself up as the premier destination for high end talent, they will want to attract the very best American born players (at the expense of both the NTDP and the USHL) and a way they can do this is by offering a pay out on scholarship packages to high end players that want to go the NCAA route. So rather than just pay their tuition, that may be a violation of NCAA stipulations, the leagues can simply offer them a cash payout, equivalent to the value of tuition and books and fees for a given school year. Such money would go directly to the player and not the school.

That would make them professionals. What you are proposing is for the league to effectively pay the American players $16,000-$18,000 per year (equivalent amount of the tuition for State Schools).

The concept of the Scholarship is the student obtains an “Invoice.” The invoice is paid by the scholarship funds directly. The funds don’t go to the student. If there is no eligible invoice, the funds cannot come out of the scholarship fund.

So, in your example, effectively the players would be paid to play hockey by the league that is providing the funding which makes them professionals, not student athletes.

The NCAA would need to change the rules regarding stacking “athletic” scholarships which I believe is the issue. Currently they can only use one athletic scholarship combined with other academic scholarships.

 

[donjohnson]

I agree with you OMG...if the teams pay out the scholarship in cash they would be considered professional no different than getting a NHL signing bonus and they'd be ineligible for NCAA. They will need to work out how the scholarships get paid (by the CHL or the NCAA) but they are changing the rule based on current conditions and if the CHL starts doing something different, they would be in violation of the new rule.

 

[OMG67]

I agree with you OMG...if the teams pay out the scholarship in cash they would be considered professional no different than getting a NHL signing bonus and they'd be ineligible for NCAA. They will need to work out how the scholarships get paid (by the CHL or the NCAA) but they are changing the rule based on current conditions and if the CHL starts doing something different, they would be in violation of the new rule.

My understanding is it only relates to stacking “athletic” scholarships. They are creating a situation that opens up that possibility. The rule was created to ensure there isn’t anything subverting the competitiveness. In this case, all CHL players would come with an allotment to help fill a gap between full and partial athletic scholarships. There would be nothing there to create a competitive deficit. All programs would have the same ability to recruit. I assume there could be an exception to the rule stating that foreign athletic scholarships can be used provided there is no direct or indirect affiliation between the school and the entity holding the scholarship…. There may be an affiliation between the NCAA and the CHL but not between Michigan State and the London Knights for example.

The one variable is the “Gold Package” CHL scholarship allows for indirect payments for things like textbooks and some expenses that would not be covered by the Full Ride scholarship in the NCAA. But, that shouldn’t matter because the CHL Scholarship is managed by the CHL, not the NCAA.