Source: Ben Matchett, Calgary Assistant Athletic Director, Operations & Communications
CALGARY – The University of Calgary announced Monday that
the Dinos football team will forfeit its Sept. 5 victory over the
University of Alberta as a result of academic ineligibility of two
student-athletes.
The infraction was the result of an administrative error within the
athletic department. Upon the football program’s discovery of
the error, it was immediately reported to Canadian Interuniversity
Sport (CIS) and Canada West, where automatic sanctions include
forfeiture of competitions in which ineligible student-athletes
have played. Additional sanctions will be confirmed once CIS has
concluded its discipline process; however, the University of
Calgary elected to take this initial step.
The error stemmed from anomalies in the recognition of course
credits from 2013-14 where the courses were passed but ultimately
not able to contribute to the 18 credit hour requirement to
maintain eligibility for the 2014-15 season under CIS regulations.
This was not caught when the athletic department performed its
eligibility checks for the football team.
“Our football program has a reputation for excellence, and in
this situation we failed in our responsibility to our players,
Coach Nill, the coaching staff, and everyone associated with the
program,” said Dinos Athletic Director Ron Wuotila. “We
are profoundly disappointed by this regrettable mistake, and we
will work diligently to re-evaluate our compliance systems to
ensure a situation like this does not happen again.”
The result of the game, originally a 71-3 victory by the Dinos,
will now be officially recorded as a 1-0 win for the Alberta Golden
Bears. All statistics for the game remain intact, with the
exception of those recorded by the ineligible players.
The players in question did not participate in any of the
Dinos’ subsequent games.