Earlier this February, a rumour swirled around that had drastic implications for amateur hockey in North America, specifically U SPORTS.
It was claimed by College Hockey Insider's Mike McMahon that the NCAA is discussing the potential of permitting CHL players to be eligible to play once their tenure in Canada is over.
The possible policy change ignited uproar and discourse on both sides of the borders. For the NCAA, they could welcome a new untapped market into their talent pool; typically, CHL players enter the U SPORTS realm after their junior career ends.
It also has financial benefits for CHL players, as the recent adaptation of Name-Image-Likeness (NIL) deals in American College Sports can gross in the millions for NCAA athletes.
The rule has spanned decades and forbids OHL, WHL, and QMJHL players from competing at the NCAA level. First, it only restricted competing at a high level, but now it limits athletes from earning a significant amount of money for their play. There have been exceptions made in the past for a few players playing in both the CHL and NCAA, but new rules may cause seismic changes throughout hockey.
But how would it affect U SPORTS?
It's no secret that a large majority of CHL players take the U SPORTS route to continue their competitive play and earn their education. Especially with the CHL vouching to cover the education costs for each year played in the league. Depending on how many seasons the player competed, it guarantees a financially safe way for former athletes to achieve their degrees.
This fills U SPORTS with a plethora of talent, with players who played with NHL and professional tier talent during their junior careers. Thus creating a high level of performance hockey across Universities in Canada.
Yet, if the NCAA gave CHL players this option to compete at a more lucrative level, we could smell blood in the water for the disparity in competition across the U SPORTS hockey sphere.
Recent discoveries put this possibility to bed, though, as TSN's Darren Dreger reached out to Mike Snee, the Executive Director of College Hockey Inc., to comment on the speculation of the eligibility of CHL players in the NCAA.
"There are currently no formal discussions about CHL players gaining NCAA eligibility. NCAA amateurism rules pertaining to CHL participation remain the same that have been for several decades. There are no indications that these rules will change in the near future. The notion of changing these rules has long been a topic of informal conversations and obviously continues to be such. However, the recent heightened publicity around CHL eligibility is not rooted in anything other than coaches, media, fans, and others talking about it." Snee stated.
That's it, just an informal discussion from a rumour that seems to have no basis of truth.
The brief scare to U SPORTS could have proved detrimental, and Snee didn't rule it out entirely, only for now. The NCAA loses a chance at a large pool of hockey players by sticking to their rooted rules, and it might be better that way. Although it restrains many talented CHL players from cashing out on NIL deals, it preserves the competitive level across University play in Canada.
