The NCAA News - News & Features

Maine to keep title

Maine participated in and won the 1993 Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship with a student-athlete who later was declared ineligible for receipt of an expense honorarium of $2,000 from USA Hockey due to his participation on the Olympic team. The university asked the championships committee not to apply a bylaw that requires that an institution's championship record be vacated if it is discovered that an ineligible player participated.

The committee voted not to apply that provision or one that allows withholding of revenue distributions if the university or student-athlete knew or had reason to know of the ineligibility. The committee believed the violation to be technical in nature and agreed with the university that there were mitigating factors. The student-athlete's mother had made a good-faith effort to determine whether acceptance of the honorarium would be a violation and received erroneous information on that issue from USA Hockey.

The committee noted that it did not condone the action but did not believe it warranted requiring the institution to vacate its championship.