Big Ten Withdraws Age Limit Proposal

Days before it was set to be voted on by the NCAA, sources have informed USCHO.com that the Big Ten has withdrawn their controversial proposal to limit players that played three years of junior hockey after graduating high school to just three years of NCAA eligibility.

The source told USCHO that the Big Ten pulled the legislation to "allow for more discussion" of the issue, which is to say, allow for any discussion of the issue after the Big Ten's coaches drafted this proposal on their own last summer, then sent a mass email to the sport's other coaches informing them that the rule change had been submitted.

Overall, this is a big win for the sport of college hockey as a whole. The content of the rule itself was almost inconsequential. The crux of the issue and the real controversy was whether or not a select group of schools could bully though legislation to give themselves an advantage.

There were strong rumors midway through this season that the Big Ten would have had the votes to push this through if they had really pursued it.  It's good for the competitive balance of the sport that ultimately they chose not to take that route due to its's overwhelming unpopularity among the rest of college hockey.