News Article: NCAA Sued Over CHL Eligibility by WHLer

[montreal]

Arizona State gets commitment from WHL player Whitehead, who is aiming to challenge NCAA eligibility rule regarding major junior players - College Hockey | USCHO.com

Braxton Whitehead, an Alaska native starting his fourth full season with the WHL's Regina Pats, has announced his commitment to Arizona State for the

www.uscho.com

This is the first NCAA commitment for a CHL player since a proposed class action suit was filed against the NCAA and 10 universities last month claiming that the eligibility rules violate antitrust laws. The suit seeks to allow players to play in both major junior and at the NCAA level.

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[Bombshell11]

The NCAA's interest in boycotting the CHL players is purely for business reasons. More of their players get recognition in the NHL, the more students they get. If said player joins the NCAA and then leaves for the OHL , they can't claim said player is a NCAA product. If your program sucks big sheets of balls then why would a hockey prospect have his parents invest 100k for a bs degree while their son can just go play in the CHL and get paid for it?

I don't like the universities and i don't like their programs. Hopefully it goes the CHL's way.

 

[MXD]

The NCAA's interest in boycotting the CHL players is purely for business reasons. More of their players get recognition in the NHL, the more students they get. If said player joins the NCAA and then leaves for the OHL , they can't claim said player is a NCAA product. If your program sucks big sheets of balls then why would a hockey prospect have his parents invest 100k for a bs degree while their son can just go play in the CHL and get paid for it?

I don't like the universities and i don't like their programs. Hopefully it goes the CHL's way.

Errhh, the issue is the players going from the CHL to the NCAA, not the other way around.

 

[Wats]

Errhh, the issue is the players going from the CHL to the NCAA, not the other way around.

Yeah... Hope NCAA wins this. Let the kids get a chance at schooling.

 

[montreal]

The big question you should be asking is if this goes through and starting in '25-'26 the NCAA allows CHLers, what happens to CHL draft picks? Could that lead to some CHLers refusing to sign with their team ala the NCAA "loophole" cause after 2 years when their rights are up, if they have the option to go to the NCAA for 4 years that could increase their odds of being signed if say things didn't go so great while they were in the CHL or maybe they were a 5th round pick and feel they can increase their contract value if they don't sign and do a good job in the NCAA.

Just wild speculation of course but an interesting situation.

 

[morhilane]

The big question you should be asking is if this goes through and starting in '25-'26 the NCAA allows CHLers, what happens to CHL draft picks? Could that lead to some CHLers refusing to sign with their team ala the NCAA "loophole" cause after 2 years when their rights are up, if they have the option to go to the NCAA for 4 years that could increase their odds of being signed if say things didn't go so great while they were in the CHL or maybe they were a 5th round pick and feel they can increase their contract value if they don't sign and do a good job in the NCAA.

Just wild speculation of course but an interesting situation.

Wouldn't the rule stick to when and from which league they were drafted from? So CHL is 2 years regardless if they op for the NCAA afterward.

It could lead to an increase in competent young undrafted/UFA players that get signed older thought since I personally think the NCAA is a better development path right now (maybe not all the Uni, but that's another story).

 

[montreal]

Wouldn't the rule stick to when and from which league they were drafted from? So CHL is 2 years regardless if they op for the NCAA afterward

What I'm saying is those CHLers who were drafted, after 2 years will they look to NOT sign with their NHL club as they do now, since it's kind of rare for a CHLer to turn down signing with the team that drafted them. So my question is, will this change that as it will open more doors for them since as of now their options are AHL/ECHL/CIS or hope you can get enough TOI in one of the Euro leagues. Adding the NCAA option could possibly open things up a bit to where we might see some more interesting things happen because of this.

 

[Sorinth]

The big question you should be asking is if this goes through and starting in '25-'26 the NCAA allows CHLers, what happens to CHL draft picks? Could that lead to some CHLers refusing to sign with their team ala the NCAA "loophole" cause after 2 years when their rights are up, if they have the option to go to the NCAA for 4 years that could increase their odds of being signed if say things didn't go so great while they were in the CHL or maybe they were a 5th round pick and feel they can increase their contract value if they don't sign and do a good job in the NCAA.

Just wild speculation of course but an interesting situation.

I would imagine it will be quite rare for a player to refuse to sign with the NHL team and then goes to the NCAA in order to become UFA in another 2 years. You might see some fringe prospects who weren't going to get signed to an NHL deal going to the NCAA, and teams might even encourage that in order to keep the rights to the player for longer, but I doubt many players will refuse to sign a deal when it's offered.