RAMS WINS ERASED
Ineligible player busts team back to 0-5 record.
Upon further review, the University of Regina Rams are winless.
The Canada West football team’s three victories during the 2018 Canada West season have been nixed after the U of R self-reported an as-yet-unidentified ineligible player to the U Sports governing body on Tuesday.
The player had participated in the Rams’ first five regular-season games and, as a consequence, the team’s record is now 0-5. The Rams will play their final three games without the aforementioned player.
“We’re gutted and devastated for our Rams family, frankly, and for our football community,” Lisa Robertson, the U of R’s director of sport, community engagement and athlete development, said Friday. “I can tell you that it was a human error in the processing of intake — an academically ineligible student-athlete.”
The error occurred “in the purview of university administration” as opposed to within the football program.
“This is 100-per-cent my accountability on the university administrative side,” said Robertson, noting that an internal review is taking place.
The university did not make Rams players or coaches available for interviews Friday, when the sanction was disclosed to the public. When asked to characterize the mood of people in the football program, Robertson said: “What do you think their mood was? They were devastated. It was very hard news to hear.”
The Rams still have a mathematical chance of making the playoffs in the six-team conference.
Their remaining games are scheduled for Oct. 12 against the University of Alberta Golden Bears (2-3), Oct. 19 versus the University of Calgary Dinos (5-0) and Oct. 26 against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies (3-2). Alberta and Saskatchewan are to visit Mosaic Stadium.
All individual statistics, except for those of the ineligible player, will stand. That is especially important in light of the fact that the Rams’ Noah Picton recently set the U Sports record for all-time passing yardage (11,496).