Mercyhurst men's hockey players are in limbo after the the university discontinued the Div. I program. The timing of the announcement and scholarship support from the university doesn't help, one player says.
It's been less than two weeks since NCAA Mercyhurst announced it was discontinuing its men's Div. I program, but the news is still shocking for the college hockey community.
As for the players themselves, it's been an incredibly rough time.
"Everyone is upset, confused and mostly frustrated with the school," said left winger Sean James, the Lakers' third-leading scorer this season. "It's really just wrong what they've done to us."
Publicly, the move was announced on March 27. But the players suspect this had been in the works for much longer.
At the least, the school likely knew before they asked the coaches and players to film a video asking for donations to the program. The filming took place on the Wednesday before the news was announced.
"I'm 99 percent sure they knew for a long time," James said. "But we were supposed to have our exit interviews starting on Wednesday, and they kept getting pushed back. Our coaches had no idea why the athletic director was pushing them back, but it's pretty obvious now."
"We've worked our whole lives to play D1 hockey, but if we stayed here, we'd essentially be quitting hockey and just going to school. It doesn't do anything for us. They've done nothing for us but blow up our lives."
The school texted and emailed the players at 8 a.m. on the Friday, telling them to be in the dressing room one hour later. That's when the bomb was dropped on the Lakers.
According to James, players were told there were 10 criteria that went into the decision, but the only one that was actually expressed to them was "competitiveness."
While Mercyhurst did finish last in the Atlantic Hockey America conference, the Lakers won their first conference playoff game and pushed eventual champ Bentley to triple-overtime in their next post-season match.
The school announced in its initial press release that it would support the hockey players by, among other things, honoring their scholarships. But that's not as useful as it may seem on the surface. As for other support, James hasn't seen any yet.
"No, none at all," he said. "They've said they'll honor our scholarships, which to the general public may seem great, but to us it's really meaningless. We've worked our whole lives to play D1 hockey, but if we stayed here, we'd essentially be quitting hockey and just going to school. It doesn't do anything for us. They've done nothing for us but blow up our lives."
There's also the educational aspect to consider. If the players transfer to another school to play hockey, they'll have to think about which course credits would still apply in their new university.
Some of the players are Canadian and could go to school back home, and the transferability of credits there would also be something they'd have to deal with. It could mean an extra year of university or summer classes.
But these players went to Mercyhurst to play Div. I hockey, and that's what they would like to keep doing.
The NCAA transfer portal opens on Monday, and while the Lakers were entered early due to their situation, other schools aren't ready to commit to any of them until they see which talents from other universities will be available.
In the meantime, the Mercyhurst kids are in limbo.
"If the school had told us even at Christmas, we would have been able to work towards what we were going to do next," James said. "Other guys (from other schools) have known they were going to transfer at Christmas or even earlier, so they've been preparing. But this was so out of the blue, we had nothing set up. It's going to be very hard for us and, honestly, very unlikely that many of us will find another D1 spot."
Even if the players find a new team, they certainly won't all be together. James is completing his junior year of college and was assuming he'd be graduating next year with a number of his teammates.
"Now we have one more month together, and who knows?" he said. "We might not see each other again."
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