The Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Committee recently voiced concerns about the consistency of the application of the amateurism rules in ice hockey, and the NCAA staff is working to help improve the understanding of the legislation at the campus level.

“We want to get some standardization so we don’t have different interpretations of who is eligible to play and who isn’t,” said Bruce Delventhal, athletics director at Plattsburgh State and chair of the Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Committee.

Because of the relatively high number of international student-athletes playing men’s ice hockey compared to other Division III sports, the committee is using a process that includes the Division III Interpretations and Legislative Committee. That group has recommended no rules changes but has endorsed a reformatting of the amateurism rules in the Manual so they appear in three sections – pre-enrollment, delayed enrollment and post-enrollment. These changes are not expected to appear until the 2010-11 Manual.

Also as a result of concerns in Division III ice hockey, the international and select athlete questionnaire will be revamped to include consequences of a “yes” answer to any of the questions. The staff is also working to identify resources within the Agents Gambling and Amateurism group at the national office that will help Division III schools.

Delventhal said the committee will continue to discuss this issue at future meetings.

“We just want to try to create an avenue to make sure everybody is getting the same justifications,” he said.

The committee also began to discuss including competition against Division II teams in the championship selection process. Currently, Division III teams are allowed to play Division II teams, but the games do not count toward championship selection. Delventhal said the committee is concerned that without promoting competition between the two divisions, the Division II teams could drop the sport. The NCAA does not sponsor a Division II men’s ice hockey championship.

“We’d like to allow those games to count. We think that would be positive on both sides,” Delventhal said. “We don’t want to lose participation in college sports. I think all of us in athletics don’t want to lose participation, and I think the NCAA doesn’t want to see more schools dropping ice hockey, so here’s a great way to help those programs.”

In other business, the committee:

• Proposed to allow more than 21 players on the ice during practice at the championship. Delventhal said this decision was “common sense” and fit with the Division III philosophy that emphasizes participation.
• Recommended that Lake Placid, New York, be designated as the site for the 2010 Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Championship and that Minneapolis be the site in 2011.