FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[hurley]

ODAC commissioner Brad Bankston said Wednesday the NCAA has ordered Emory & Henry to forfeit all four of its football wins from last season,


sounds like they volunteered to forfeit those games.

[Matt Barnhart (kid)]

ODAC commissioner Brad Bankston said Wednesday the NCAA has ordered Emory & Henry to forfeit all four of its football wins from last season,


sounds like they volunteered to forfeit those games.

If the NCAA ordered them to, then they didn't volunteer to.

[hurley]

sarcasm kid"I had no idea, no idea," Montgomery said.

"Here's how I feel about it: Anybody can say whatever they want; we still won those four games. ... Our institution made a mistake. If [the NCAA] wants to hold us accountable for that, so be it. But we still won those games. You can't take that away." oops  they did take them away

[Pat Coleman]

ODAC commissioner Brad Bankston said Wednesday the NCAA has ordered Emory & Henry to forfeit all four of its football wins from last season,


sounds like they volunteered to forfeit those games.

Gotcha. That wasn't in the Tri-Cities story. When I saw Berman wrote only a handful of paragraphs, I decided to read the more in-depth story.

[beenhit2hard]

EHC Pride


It is the job of the registrar and the AD to determine eligibility,,not the coach.Coaches can be blind sided by them,,as in this case.I lost 3 high school games because of a Guidance counselor,,.who was too busy to check elig until school was 4 weeks in session.

[hurley]

beenhittohard

"I had no idea, no idea". If Your a head coach at d3 you should have an idea how your players are doing academically ,personally and athletically. When you sit in a senior in H.S living room that's one of the promises you make to the parents to convince them to play for your school. All college coaches at every level are judged on their graduation rates and how there kids excel in the classroom.

[EHCPride]

beenhit2hard,

I would normally agree with you.  Except in this case, Montgomery has a weekly grade check system in place.  All the players report to one of the coaches to let them know about their grades.  I don't think this was an "oversight."

[narch]

Montgomery said.

"Here's how I feel about it: Anybody can say whatever they want; we still won those four games. ... Our institution made a mistake. If [the NCAA] wants to hold us accountable for that, so be it. But we still won those games. You can't take that away."

interesting quote...why shouldn't a coaching staff be held accountable for using ineligible players? ultimately, isn't everything that happens within a football program the responsibility of the coaching staff?...and yes, you won those games, but you did so using a player who wasn't eligible...that's not playing within the guidelines, coach

kudos to ehc for doing the right thing...shame on coach montgomery for being unwilling to shoulder the blame

and i still don't understand why guilford didn't do the right thing and forfeit their games a few years ago...

[Ralph Turner]

I hope that the ultimate person to take responsibility for this matter has the authority over the personnel, the administrative processes, and the budgetary controls to prevent this from happening again.

[allsky7]

     Hey skoaltrain and jacketlawyer....all this talk about E&H using an ineligible player has made me thirsty. Have they finished that microbrewery yet in Lynchburg? Sure seems like it should be opened by now. We are still on for breaking that place in aren't we?    We can just consider it training camp for the 2008 tailgate season. 

[Matt Barnhart (kid)]

beenhit2hard,

I would normally agree with you.  Except in this case, Montgomery has a weekly grade check system in place.  All the players report to one of the coaches to let them know about their grades.  I don't think this was an "oversight."

Not only that, but can't coaches request grade updates from the registrar? If so, you don't just have to trust the player's word.

Also, aren't eligibility rules pretty cut and dry? Freshmen have to have a 1.4, sophomores a 1.6, juniors a 1.8, and seniors a 2.0? I know most Division III programs have only 5 to 10 coaches, and anywhere from 50 to 150 players, but if midterm and semester grades can be checked through the registrar, then I'd say it's pretty easy to check any number of players.

Montgomery said.

"Here's how I feel about it: Anybody can say whatever they want; we still won those four games. ... Our institution made a mistake. If [the NCAA] wants to hold us accountable for that, so be it. But we still won those games. You can't take that away."

interesting quote...why shouldn't a coaching staff be held accountable for using ineligible players? ultimately, isn't everything that happens within a football program the responsibility of the coaching staff?...and yes, you won those games, but you did so using a player who wasn't eligible...that's not playing within the guidelines, coach

kudos to ehc for doing the right thing...shame on coach montgomery for being unwilling to shoulder the blame

and i still don't understand why guilford didn't do the right thing and forfeit their games a few years ago...

Well said. It doesn't matter if it's one or if it's 50 ineligible players -- it's one too many. No coach should feel they still won the game. Clearly forfeit policies are in place (both NCAA and conference) because of fairness issues.

Perhaps Coach Montgomery meant that the 99.9% of his kids who played by the rules still deserved those four wins? I sure hope so.

[beenhit2hard]

In my former coaching life it worked this way.The coach sends a list of all possible players to the registrar. He(registrar) goes thru the list and sends back a list of all who ARE and who ARE NOT eligible. If he was on the list of being eligible,then the coach can play him.If he is declared ineligible at a later date because of a registrar oversight,,then who is to blame. If you don't like the Coach ,, just say so,,but this was a matter that involved more than the Coach.

[tigerfanalso]

Unfortunate situation at EHC however, I'm not going to judge the coach or any other person that may be involved. Somewhere along the line a mistake was made and that is only human nature. I don't know anything about Coach Montgomery, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I don't think EHC would employ a person with character issues and it takes a coach with character issues to knowing allow a player to participate that he knows to be ineligiable. I don't think EHC, Coach Montgomery or any other Institution or coaching staff in the ODAC is capable of purposely violating any rule. Mistakes will be made along the way but the ODAC programs are clean, including EHC, and not of the nature to purposely violate any rule. I honestly believe that to be 100% true. This to shall pass. Hopefully procedures will be implemented to prevent future like situations.   

[Jacketlawyer]

     Hey skoaltrain and jacketlawyer....all this talk about E&H using an ineligible player has made me thirsty. Have they finished that microbrewery yet in Lynchburg? Sure seems like it should be opened by now. We are still on for breaking that place in aren't we?    We can just consider it training camp for the 2008 tailgate season. 

Allsky, my offer to you and Skoal for the Dahlia is still open!!  They've actually got some decent stuff in there now!  Supposedly the new brewery will be open this summer, but I've heard that before! 8)

Don't have much of a comment on the ineligible player at E&H, except I hope whatever the problem is, they look to it quickly.

[The_end_of_overlook]

Let me start by saying this, as a former player for Coach Monty and teammates of several coaches on staff, I am truly concerned by the stance some of you carry about these individuals. I can honestly say as a player there is not a single Coach in the country more concerned with academics, personal life, and anything else you can thing of than Coach Monty.

Was there a mistake made? Yes, however I think it falls on a large number of people from the AD, Registrar, coaching staff, shoot even to the President of the School. Obviously things did not work the way they should have, because of that a mistake occurred, all that can be done now is fix the problem.  Like someone else had mentioned most D3 programs have anywhere from 120-200 players on the roster, if it is the sole responsibility to not only coach but to also keep track of all these grades then maybe every D3 school in the country should hire one if not two people who's only concern is checking grades.

A mistake was made, now its time to fix it. But Coach Monty is right, even though they are forced to forfeit all games, does not take away the fact that they did win four games, on paper yes, but in your heart and mind no. And obviously that is not counting the three ineligible players. I am sure they are just as upset and hurt by the situation as anyone. Remember, these 3 students athletes lives will probably be changed for every because of this situation. They put themselves in a bad situation, but some where along the line someone else also made a mistake and to say it was done on purpose by Coach Monty is ridiculous.

Question the procedure of declaring a student athlete eligible, yes, but there isn't a person anywhere who can question the integrity of Coach Monty. I can assure you any past players will echo my feelings.