Simply, I am ****ed. As a non-athlete student, I was always irked by the enhancements, of all types, offered to athletes at the school. As much as we're all a fan of athletics and enjoy collegiate sports, it seemed preposterous to me that at a Division-III state institution, how extensive the university's endorsement of dual experiences for athletes and non-athletes was. You expect something like that at Duke, but not Geneseo or Buffalo State.
If the postseason ban were for any length of time beyond this year, it would be assuredly the nail in the coffin for Geneseo hockey. It may still be, but it's less certain. The Canadian influx has been widespread throughout the SUNYAC, so this might not be the last we hear about this. However, this mechanism was a strong measure to get hockey players to the school. Geneseo's academic situation is much different than, say Oswego's or Plattsburgh's - and the school is only getting more selective. Getting top hockey players who can get into the school - with the NCAA carefully watching the admissions process - will become even more difficult.
Geneseo has, aside from a few brief spurts, been a historically average program, with brief spurts of success mired by significant droughts of sub-10 win seasons. Taking out this mechanism, the future does not look bright for the Ice Knights. You only need look at Morrisville or Lebanon Valley to see what taking the hope (hope of a playoff berth, hope of a postseason run, hope of tasting the NCAAs) out of the locker room does. There's only one person left associated with the hockey program at Geneseo that was around when the team won its back-to-back league championships, and that's assistant coach Kris Heeres. The culture of winning that existed in my early years at the school has completely dissipated.
Chris Schultz took over for Jason Lammers in 2006-7. That year Mitch Stephens only had ten goals against 45 assists, and dispite being the team's most dynamic threat, spent most of the power play hovering away from the net. That team also included Mike MacDonald, Steve Jordan, Mark Schwamberger, and Brett Bestwick making their final appearances in Geneseo uniforms. Once that core of Geneseo's championship teams left, Scultz guided the team to a combined record of 30-39-2, including this season. That's a winning percentage of .437. And it doesn't look like it's about to get better, does it? The fact that the NCAA has just determined Geneseo had a recruiting advantage over other schools* while Schultz was racking up this winning percentage is especially concerning. Where's the issue then? A superior recruiting advantage, combined with a solid coach, should lead to success on the ice. The fact we can establish Geneseo had a recruiting advantage, seems to suggest Schultz either isn't a very good recruiter, or isn't a very good coach. And that conclusion raises questions if he'll be able to bring the program back to prominance after this latest setback and being forced to entice players on the same playing field as all other schools operate.
So Geneseo's administrators have to make a choice on how seriously they want to take athletics, especially their largest drawing sport of hockey. They need to decide if they want to commit financial resources legitimately, or if they want to focus on being an academic instiution. And if they are going to put the monetary resources into athletics, they need to determine if they are getting the best possible value for their dollar.
Suffice it to say, there are no happy Geneseo hockey fans today.
*And it is a recruiting advantage. Other schools might do that same thing, but if they do it in an acceptable manner to include the entire student body, that means they either have fewer opportunities for athletes, or are spending a wider portion of their budget on it, decreasing services elsewhere and making the insitutiton as a whole less attractive.
