With three weeks to go before the Pac-10 Championship, it appears that the USC men's bid to bolster their ranks with the presence of several international calibre oarsmen has hit a stumbling block. On Friday, the Pac-10 conference officially declared that the Estonian oarsmen who have been rowing for the club-status program this spring will not be eligible to compete at the Pac-10's. USC coach Gene Kininmouth, however, said that USC did not intend to row the crew in any collegiate races this year.
row2k has inquired about the crew by email on two previous occasions without success over the past two months. Reached by phone on Monday, USC coach Gene Kininmouth tersely expressed disapproval for row2k asking "the same questions," and said that "There are a lot of stories going around out there, but we haven't raced the crew in any collegiate events this year, and do not intend to."
This past weekend, USC was to race UCLA, but after the Pac-10 ruling came down on Friday afternoon, apparently there was considerable controversy about rules, boatings and personnel, and the programs could not come to an agreement on the overall racing format for the event, a cup race. According to coach Paul Mokha, UCLA "decided not to race due lack of consensus on who would row and which events would be contested." Read UCLA's release on the issue here: UCLA/USC Dual Cancelled. I will link up any official releases from USC as available.
Prior to the weekend, the Pac-10 was asked to rule on the eligibility of the crew, and reached a decision on Friday. As I understand it, the group consists of six oarsmen from the Estonian Under-23 crew, along with two additional Estonian team members who were chosen by the Estonian coach to replace oarsmen who were not able to join their boatmates in Los Angeles due to academic requirements back home.
Mike Matthews, Pac-10 Associate Commissioner, Compliance, responded as follows to an inquiry about the ruling with respect to the eight Estonian oarsman currently participating on the USC men's club rowing team:
"We have a Conference rule [SPR 9-2-b-(3)] that requires men's club (as opposed to intercollegiate) rowing teams to meet minimal eligibility standards in order to compete at the Pac-10 Championships:
Conference Club Teams.
Conference member institutions that enter club teams in the Conference Championships shall provide certification to the Conference office that all student-athletes participating in the Championships are enrolled as full-time students and have not competed for more than four seasons within five calendar years of the date of their initial full-time collegiate enrollment. (See NCAA 14.2, NCAA 14.2.1)We interpret "full-time students" to be the standard that an intercollegiate student-athlete would have to meet. For an undergraduate student, that standard is contained in NCAA Bylaw 14.1.8.2: "...enrolled in at least a minimum full-time program of studies leading to a baccalaureate or equivalent degree, which shall not be less than 12 semester or quarter hours."
My understanding is that these students are not enrolled in classes that lead to a degree. Also, it is my understanding that these students have not filled out an application to be a degree-seeking student at USC. Thus, they would fail to meet Pac-10 SPR 9-2-b-(3) and would not be eligible to compete at the Pac-10 Rowing Championships.
That this rule only governs the Conference Championship. We have no eligibility rules for regular-season competition for club rowers. Thus, failure to meet Pac-10 SPR 9-2-b-(3) would not prevent these students from participating in a regatta with a club team at any other non-Conference Championship event."
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04/29/2008 8:37:26 AM