NCAA expected to consider change that could allow CHL players

The NCAA Division I Council is considering making a landmark change in eligibility rules this week that would allow Canadian Hockey League players to compete at U.S. colleges, the American Hockey Coaches Association executive director said Monday.

Forrest Karr, who is also the Minnesota-Duluth athletic director, said the council is moving forward on determining whether to lift the long-standing eligibility ban even before the two AHCA committees he oversees — one dealing with men’s hockey and the other women’s — submit their own recommendations. The council is meeting this week, with the matter on the agenda, and a decision is not expected until Wednesday at the earliest.

“If a decision is made to update legislation, there are also likely to be discussions about the most appropriate implementation date,” Karr wrote in a text to The Associated Press. Karr said the council will at the same time consider changing eligibility rules for skiing, which also bars athletes who competed on a professional team or were reimbursed beyond necessary expenses.

The development comes on the heels of a class-action lawsuit filed Aug. 13 in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, challenging the NCAA’s ban of players from the CHL’s Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.

“We’re hopeful that the NCAA will do the right thing at the upcoming meetings and vote to end the ban on CHL players from NCAA Division I hockey,” Stephen Lagos, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, wrote in an email to the AP. “We believe that all players, and hockey more generally, would benefit from this change.”

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A change in NCAA legislation could be far-reaching with the potential of increasing competition for college-age talent between the CHL and the NCAA, North America’s two top producers of NHL draft-eligible players.

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Publish date : 2024-10-08 00:33:30

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