Huskies upset university careers are finished
An age-cap ruling has abruptly ended the U Sports football-playing careers of five members of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
Those players — slotback Colton Klassen, running back Jace Peters, receiver Yol Piok, offensive lineman Nick Summach and receiver Joseph Trumpy — won’t be able to use a fifth year of eligibility following a ruling Thursday by U Sports to not extend the age-cap limit by one year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Disappointed and surprised,” said Huskie Athletics chief athletics officer Dave Hardy. “It certainly doesn’t represent our stance, nor the stance of Canada West on this matter.”
Hardy says they are currently reviewing the decision and hope to have further discussion. The decision caught them off guard.
“Because it’s contrary to principle that U Sports had developed, that no one would be penalized by the pandemic,” Hardy said. “And, clearly, in this instance, those players who are affected age-wise are hurt by this ruling.”
Football is the lone Canadian university sport that currently has an age restriction. If you turn 25 before Sept. 1, you are not eligible to play U Sports football.
There’s a seven-year window after graduating from high school for U Sports football players to complete their five-year eligibility, as many of them play junior football before entering the university ranks.
With the 2020 Vanier Cup and upcoming season cancelled, that seven-year window has been reduced to six.
While other U Sports athletes won’t be losing a year of eligibility if their season is cancelled during the pandemic, football’s age restriction nullifies that exemption.
That means the swan song of roughly 300 football players across Canada has already been played out.
“At the end of it, it’s not just right,” U of S Huskies head coach Scott Flory said Friday. “I really wish the decision makers had the courage to do the right thing and it just does not feel that way, at all.”
Flory said he’s “very surprised and disappointed” by U Sports’ direction.
“Whether or not you like the age rule in football, whether that’s right or wrong, given the circumstances, the right thing to do is to give these guys the opportunity to be able to compete in 2021. By cancelling the season — and, again, you can have debate over that — but, by doing that, then, in the best interest of the student-athletes and players would just be to grandfather them the opportunity to be able to compete in 2021.”
An estimated 300 players out of 2,335 will be similarly affected in 2021, according to U Sports.
U Sports adopted an age cap in football a decade ago to prevent large gaps in physical maturation and experience between players, and also to create room on rosters for younger players, according to U Sports interim CEO Dick White.
White, who took over for departed CEO Graham Brown last month, told The Canadian Press that “our legal advice that we received was very firm.”
“If we believe the age cap should be 25 for the health and safety of athletes then we should not under any circumstances alter that,” argued White.
Flory, for one, doesn’t buy White’s argument. He doesn’t understand why football has been singled out without a burden of proof.
“To my knowledge, (U Sport) football is the only (collegiate) sport in North America that has an age rule,” Flory said. “I have to yet to see any supporting evidence, other than feeling that somehow a 25-year-old is unsafe to be on the football field. I have yet to see any documentation, any proof, or anything behind the decision-making that was made. I wasn’t there so I don’t know those conversations, but, when they come out with a press release and say ‘health and safety,’ the skeptic in me just says, ‘show me the proof.’”