For a 24-year-old, Jason Bailey has an impressive athletic resume. He was drafted by the Anaheim Ducks in 2005, and won a Calder Cup last season in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Binghamton Senators.
Though Bailey retired from pro hockey and is attending classes at Carleton this year, he can’t lace up his skates for the Ravens, or any team in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS).
CIS regulations state that an athlete only has five years of eligibility to play in the league, and loses a year of that eligibility for every year he or she plays in either the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or in a professional league.
Since Bailey played for two years in the NCAA and spent another three in the minor pros, he’s ineligible to play university hockey. He never played in the NHL, but the CIS doesn’t differentiate between NHL teams and the minors. It’s the number of years, not the level of hockey, that makes Bailey unable to play.
On the other hand, in 2009, former NHLer Mike Danton, was allowed to play one year of hockey with the Saint Mary’s University Huskies, after having spent one year in the AHL and three years in the NHL between 2000-2004. He was 29.
While eligibility regulations are necessary in order to ensure fair competition in the CIS, the organization should consider treating situations like Bailey’s on a case-by-case basis. It isn’t fair that Bailey, who is as young as many university students at Carleton, has to give up hockey at the university level when someone like Danton, who has played at the most elite level of hockey, is allowed to compete.
For many, it’s difficult to maintain a career in the minor leagues, and in Bailey’s case, he didn’t receive a contract offer to continue with the Senators. But at 24, athletes shouldn’t have to choose between a passion and an education.