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NCAA Basketball has become a joke. Kids are finishing their high school requirements now a year early so they can do their "one and done" college commitment which is complete opposite of hockey.
Why other sports don't do what hockey does:
D-1 Basketball teams: 347 4,500 scholarships available
D-1 Football teams: 252 18,700 scholarships available (128 FBS--85 FULL scholarships available; 124 FCS--63 scholarships)
D-1 Baseball teams: 298 3,500 scholarships available
Almost all of the scholarships on these teams go to American kids. In order to field competitive teams these sports need to get kids into school and can't afford to push them off 2-3 years.
The reason D-1 hockey teams can make kids jump through hoops:
D-1 Hockey teams 60 1,100 scholarships (18 per team) Total number of players (@25 per team) = 1500
Canadians and Europeans make up almost 40% of the total number of players - 600
Hockey spots for Americans 900 or 225 per year
There are literally thousands of kids who are good enough to play college hockey. There just aren't the spots. So hockey schools hold all the cards and can push kids off as long as they are willing to delay their lives. Which is surprisingly long time for a lot of them. And its not going to change unless a lot more schools take up hockey.
WAy off topic here boys. Question is do you think MM and TA know their kids simply shouldn’t be playing at the level that they are? Think they feel shame?
NCAA is about winning and making money. If your kid is good enough, he has leverage and can play at 18 with a 4/4. If he's not, he gets jerked around, pushed out and or cut to make room for next years superstar.
Welcome to life.
Moan and groan all you want about how unfair it is but all your really saying is my kids not good enough.
The whining from hockey parents about how you can no longer control the outcome for your kids is so amusing.
So your saying that a kid who has played HS hockey as a senior in Massachusetts has absolutely no chance to play D3 hockey-i can think of a number of examples the last 5-7 years that would refute your claim, including a number from the town that I live in which plays D2 HS (had been D3).
I can't think of any other NCAA sport that routinely shelves players (go play juniors for a few) without burning eligibility the way hockey does. The only applicable example in other sports that I can quickly think of is JUCO for football, baseball, hockey and unless the rules have changed (which is always possible) the time a player is enrolled in JUCO starts his 5 year clock ticking. So at least in that regards, hockey is the worst.
Make commitments binding from both sides and put an upper age limit as to what a 4th year player can play at in college (23?). Away with the 13 year old 'commits' long before anyone knows if they can play, away with the repeat kids doing two years of juniors and showing up on campus as a bearded 21 year old, enough of 'committing' when it means nothing, away with spots being pulled at the last minute because a team over committed to kids...you sign them and you're on the hook for at least X% of 4 years of college...