Reporter exposes UBC docs discussing 0-8* ruling

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Jim Mullin
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http://jimmullinnow.blogspot.ca/2012/07 ... tails.html

Bob Mackin did an FOI request on UBC Athletics in regard to the 0-8 season ruling.
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Toppy Vann
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That is shocking that they don't have someone in charge of eligibility and transcripts review and that this would not be done on a continuing basis.

I don't know current SFU practice but in the past that was done for obvious reasons as it necessary.

Yes, you don't like to see this sort of thing in sports where teams lose games due to ineligible players.
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WestCoastJoe
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I expect a Compliance Officer is standard procedure at universities playing sports. And it looks like UBC did not have one. And I would suspect budgetary issues precluded it prior this embarrassment pointing out its necessity.

I get the impression that UBC kind of reluctantly plays big time university sports. And this despite considerable success. If you are going to play in the big leagues, you have to take of the paper work. D'oh ...
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Jim Mullin
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In SFU's case, the NCAA requires them to have a compliance officer in place. There's a mind-numbing list of rules and regs they have to submit to.

When I asked contacts at three other shools what they do, they told me that they do an annual review. The whole idea of it being a mistake from three years ago is really invalid. The only year the player(s) in question were ineligible was 2011. That's the responsibility of the department head.

There could be someone on staff who has the compliance portfolio written into their job description. But as the story correctly points out, as of today there is no one who is specifically listed as a compliance officer. With the number of student athletes gearing up for September, with 36 work days left between now and the first football game, should someone be in place? Uh, yeah.
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Toppy Vann
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I would think UBC would put this in place immediately and fix the issue.

It needs to a firm job of someone.

In the two years I was doing JV Soccer at SFU it was the then track coach (Zenon) who was in charge of that for the entire department. Jim Easton Sr, with me assisting him had the men's JV team under the Clan Alumni banner so no one lost eligibility as officially we were a community team.

One Friday morning the Head Varsity Coach Keith Watts (early in the season) calls me at work and wants to take one of our defenders on a US road trip leaving around noon. I say yes and agree to notify the HC later. An hour later a very, very furious Keith calls back to say 'he had no time to tell me the details now but this player was apparently not even registered in school. While he was to file his class schedule with me, it seems that he entirely pulled off a fake schedule.

I finally the next day reach the player on phone at his family restaurant. I tell him that before he can suit up the next day I need a full explanation of what happened. He says 'just a minute' and puts down the phone and leaves me on the hook for some 20 minutes before I realize this guy is not speaking to me.

It turned out Zenon the compliance officer calls the Registrar and he is not registered and never was. The guy then tells Zenon they are wrong so the player and another player go to the Registrar's office and cause a huge commotion. They call to VCC from where he was allegedly a transfer student. VCC laugh as his GPA was sub 1.00 over two terms.

Our team Captain Chuck Keeling of now race track fame told me that he had asked this player a number of times where his books were and why he didn't put them in his soccer locker room instead of go all the way to the parking lot to place them there.
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Jim Mullin
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If Zenon was communicating verbally, instead of writing... that may have been a source of the confusion. ;)
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