Should Duke Lax Players recieve an extra year...

[pvfan]

Of eligibility? I'm torn on this, part of me says yes because they were wronged, however at the same time Duke University has to take some of the blame here. They suspended the kids (not the NCAA) and canceled their season before any type of conviction was made. Also, the players played in nearly half of the regular season games that were scheduled, most of the time to get a hardship waiver you have to play in 20% or less of the games. Do the kids deserve another year? Yes. Did the University mess the entire thing up by over-reacting from the start? Yes. I just dont see how you could give them an extra year of elgibilty and be fair about it. There were seniors who were charged with nothing on that team and had their season canceled as well. If you give the accussed an extra year you might as well give the whole team an extra year. Then, you've got a huge mess in terms of scholarship money, students staying enrolled in school even after completing a degree, etc.

[sup-rbeast]

I think they should get another year...the players had nothing to do with the cancellation of the season.

[pvfan]

I agree with that, however is it fair to the other schools in the league that your basically playing against a 5 year player? I mean they did play like nearly half of the season, also the school could've continued play. Duke choose to cancel the season to save face, I really think the University thought the players would be convicted.

[sup-rbeast]

Well the players shouldn't pay the price for someone else's error. With the cancellation of the season, there was probably no practice or coaching at all last year....so I think it's fair to say it isn't the same as any other "5 year player"...at that age there isn't much of a difference, if any, anyways.

[pvfan]

Just in terms of the Duke players I think they should play. What would you do though? Let players play that are not even enrolled in school?

[sup-rbeast]

It would be the same as havin a player playing football that had already completed their degree...happens quite often..I see no problem with it personally.

[pvfan]

So should the seniors who graduated last year be allowed to play again? It's not their fault the school canceled the season, and the weren't even accussed of anything? I may be wrong on this but dont you have to be enrolled in some type of Masters program to continue playing after you've attained your degree?

[sup-rbeast]

I think they should ge treated the same as the other players even if they are graduated. They could always give em a schedule of classes, cover it one way or another, and give em another season.

[pvfan]

So, then you'd have 5th year seniors who had already played 4 years and not been injured/involved in the rape situation. You'd have the rest of the schools in the NCAA up in arms over that one. You'd have to let anybody who was suspended from a team for any violation that was later found not guilty back on the team with full elgibilty.

[sup-rbeast]

None of the schools were up in arms when they were playing and the Duke players were sittin at home or in a court. And, if a team's season wasn't calcelled you wouldn't have allow anyone to do anything. This is a different case than any other..and it should be treated as such.