Let's not blame the players

Well, the WSHL held a conference call to deal with Tucson, and the good news is that nothing was decided concerning the fate of the players. Yes, that's a good thing. The league will likely not hold a dispersal draft until early next week. When they do hold the draft, the league is considering only allowing those players who paid their tuition to participate. Those who received scholarships will be forced to pay up in full before they can enter the draft or even play anywhere else in USA Hockey. I'm not sure this makes a lot of sense. For one thing a lot of players pay their tuition on a monthly basis. So my first question regarding this process is, are players who were on a payment plan going to be allowed to be in the dispersal? If so, then it makes no sense to require the scholarship players to pay in full. They should be allowed to pay for the first three months of the season, getting "up to date" so to speak. There is a lot of talent on the table here. Teams should be allowed to acquire it through the dispersal. No offense to any teams out there, but you could use both the talent and the revenue. If players were on a payment plan, they can simply resume their payments with their new team. If they were on scholarship, then allow them to pay to get current, then continue payments with their new team. Those who paid in full can simply pick up with a new team. The players are not at fault here, and have already been through enough (some for the second year in a row), and scholarships had nothing to do with the demise of the team. Remember, this team earned more tuition revenue than any other team in the league. The demise of the team was due to excessive expenditures, not a lack of revenue. Neither at fault are the teams who under the current plan will be unable to acquire all the available players (and their potential tuition revenue). Allow the players who owe to get caught up through November, use that money to pay off the ice bill and anything else (NOT the apartments, which were paid for through billeting fees - Jon simply didn't pay those bills), get the players to their new teams, and get on the road to putting this debacle behind us.