Though the ECAC and its member schools are not bound by the NCAA decision, and could conceivably go on playing the rest of the season with players the NCAA has ruled ineligible, the national association has a good deal of clout over members that flaunt its authority.
The NCAA could censure non-complying schools, barring them from participating in any association-sanctioned post-season tournaments in all sports, as well as denying them television revenue. Such an NCAA move would have severe repercussions for Harvard's many championship teams.
Hopefully, it will not come down to this. The Harvard players, at least, feel their violations are not such as to warrant a verdict of suspension from intercollegiate play.
Freshman Ken Farrish's case is somewhat different from the rest, in that he has already been declared ineligible by both the Ivy League and the ECAC. Last year's Consent Decree does not cover this year's freshmen or subsequent incoming athletes.
Farrish lived away from home, at a friend's house, while playing Junior B hockey in Canada. The 80-mile distance he would have had to travel each day precluded his commuting from his house. He received a small amount for room and board expenses.
The other five affected Crimson players have received ECAC waivers, and are still eligible pending the NCAA decision.
Both Janicek and Roth played for B teams that were involved in interprovincial playoffs at the end of the season. Roth was in three series of two weeks each for a total of six weeks. Janicek participated in playoffs for a five-week period.
Each was reimbursed for expenses incurred during the playoffs. "We have letters from the managers of the teams," assistant director of athletics Eric Cutler said yesterday, "that state that the money they received was just for expenses." Cutler and Roth traveled to Chicago Sunday to present Harvard's case to the committee.
The cases of Dagdigian and Burke came to light this year as a result of the NCAA questionnaire handed out in September. The two had not previously been asked to file affidavits because they are Americans and the association had been concerned only with Canadians in the past.
Both Dagdigian and Burke were invited to Junior A tryout camps while they were in high school. Burke's airfare to Halifax was paid and he was put up in a dorm while attending the camp. Dagdigian and some friends from high school went to Montreal for two days to a camp.
Fathers' Cars
Dagdigian and his friends drove up with their fathers, but they were put up for the two days during the tryouts. Neither Burke nor Dagdigian received payments for their playing abilities during their brief associations with Junior A hockey.
Mike Leckie's case falls into the same general category, except that he is a Canadian. Leckie, who played Junior B hockey for the North Bay Trappers in his home town of North Bay, Ontario, was also invited to a tryout with the Junior A Greyhounds, some 300 miles from his home.
Leckie received room and board for the week he was with the Greyhound camp. He did not realize at the time that he would be violating any American college rules.
"A lot of kids are in the dark in Canada about these rulings," Leckie said. "They really should do something to inform them of the rules."
The ECAC, B.U. and other institutions will bring proposals to update the rules and the methods by which they are disseminated in Canada before the NCAA during the association's annual meeting in January.
But right now, Harvard's immediate concern is the individual eligibility cases before the subcommittee.
"We should know this week," Cutler said, "but we're optimistic about the whole thing."