The NCAA is set to vote on whether it’s going to make CHL players eligible to pursue the US College development league.
The current NCAA guidelines make players who play a CHL game or sign a CHL contract ineligible to play in the NCAA. They believe it goes against their “amateur” status rules. The NCAA considers the CHL a professional league because the CHL allows its players to sign professional contracts and play professional games while playing in the league. The NCAA does not allow its players to sign pro contracts or return to the NCAA following playing a professional game.
Even with this potential rule change, one has to keep in mind that CHL players who have signed a professional contract or play a professional game (NHL, AHL, ECHL) will remain ineligible to pursue the NCAA. It will only be the players who do not sign contracts or play pro games who can advance from the CHL to the NCAA.
For Junior ‘A’ players, the most obvious point of impact is that it will become harder to advance to the NCAA. US colleges will shift some of their attention to CHL players for scholarship opportunities. This will result in a drop of NCAA commitments from leagues like the BCHL, OJHL and AJHL.
With that said, with CHL teams losing 19 and 20-year-old players to the NCAA, they will need to fill those roster spots. It’s within reason to think that CHL teams will begin to look more closely at the top players in Jr. A to fill those spots. This could result in more CHL opportunities for late-bloomers or players who simply needed more time to grow their game to the CHL’s standards.
With CHL players deciding to pursue the NCAA, it should result in more CIS U Sports opportunities for Jr. A players. Albeit the CIS isn’t as glamorous as NCAA D1, it is still a very high level of hockey and offers strong education packages.
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