NCAA lifts eligibility ban in allowing Canadian Hockey League players to compete at US colleges

The NCAA Division I Council approved a rule Thursday allowing players with Canadian Hockey League experience to compete at U.S. colleges starting next season, a landmark decision that has the potential of shaking up the NHL’s two largest sources of developmental talent.

The decision, effective Aug. 1, lifts the NCAA’s longstanding ban on CHL players who were previously deemed to be professionals because they received a stipend of up to $600 per month for living expenses.

The approval was expected after the council introduced a proposal to lift the ban last month. Players competing at the major junior level or on professional teams can retain NCAA eligibility as long as they are not paid more than actual and necessary expenses.

The decision also applies to skiing, bringing both in line with NCAA eligibility rules for other sports

In doing so, the council opened the door for a major change in how players approaching their 16th birthdays decide where to play. Rather than having to choose between one or the other, CHL players can now play NCAA hockey when they become college eligible.

“Everyone expected the rule to change. Now we will have to adapt," Central Collegiate Hockey Association Commissioner Don Lucia wrote in a text to The Associated Press. "There may be a few issues as we transition. But hopefully, in time, it will prove to be a positive change for all involved.”

NHL agent Allan Walsh called the ruling a “game-changer.”

“This revolutionary development is great news for young players and their families, who will no longer be faced with the momentous decision of playing major junior or going the NCAA route,” Walsh added in a text message to The AP. “The young players and their families can now make decisions based on what’s best for them, not what’s best for the CHL or NCAA.”

The CHL oversees the Western Hockey, Ontario Hockey and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey leagues.

The decision could potentially spur the CHL to invest more toward player development and education to compete with the NCAA teams or risk losing its top 18-and-older talent to U.S. colleges. Meantime, an increase of CHL players could eat up college roster spots previously filled by Americans.

One option the CHL is considering in response to the ruling is increasing its current limit of two non-North American import players per roster. Otherwise, the CHL called the decision “a positive development” in providing players more athletic and academic opportunities.

The NCAA’s ruling follows a class-action lawsuit filed Aug. 13 in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, challenging the ban.

“It's long overdue, but this is a great result,” Stephen Lagos, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, wrote in an email to the AP. “We’re looking forward to players and fans seeing the benefits of a more competitive and fair market, without the rule, beginning next season.”

Lagos said the attorneys will continue pursuing the lawsuit in seeking damages for players who join the class-action case affected by the ban dating to Aug. 12, 2020.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Riley Masterson of Fort Erie, Ontario, who lost his college eligibility two years ago when, at 16, he appeared in two exhibition games for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. It lists 10 Division I hockey programs, which were selected to show they follow the NCAA’s bylaws in barring current or former CHL players.

NHL agent Brian Bartlett hailed the decision for opening choices for players.

“Just like the transfer portal and NIL rule changes of recent years, there will be some growing pains and early chaos, but we expect it will be a positive development in the long term,” Bartlett wrote in a text. “With a larger player pool, hopefully more NCAA schools will consider adding hockey programs to provide opportunities for those additional players.”

In September, Braxton Whitehead said he had verbally committed to Arizona State, making him the first CHL player to attempt to play hockey at the Division I U.S. college level. The 20-year-old Whitehead said he plans to play this season for the WHL Regina Pats before playing for the Sun Devils in 2025-26.

The stipends CHL players receive are not considered as income for tax purposes. College players, meantime, receive scholarships and now can earn money through endorsements and other use of their name, image or likeness.

The eligibility change could have a trickle down effect by impacting Canada's various junior A leagues and the USHL's ability to attract talent for those pursuing plans to play at U.S. colleges. Two recent NHL No. 1 draft picks, San Jose forward Macklin Celebrini and Buffalo defenseman Owen Power, played in the USHL.

“The USHL remains the world’s premier development path. All aspects of the league are focused on preparing athletes for collegiate and professional hockey, inclusive of on-ice, academic and character development,” the USHL said in a statement after the NCAA ruling.

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

FILE - Cornell forward Kyle Penney, right, celebrates with forward Dalton Bancroft (17) after scoring during the third period of an NCAA hockey game against North Dakota on Nov. 2, 2024 in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus, file)

FILE - Ohio St. forward Aiden Hansen-Bukata (20) and Lake Superior St. forward John Herrington (28) skate after the puck during an NCAA hockey game on Nov. 2, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Kirk Irwin, file)

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — A probe into the military's role in the disappearance of four children in Ecuador this month was delayed for almost two weeks, even though police had access to surveillance videos showing soldiers taking two of the children, The Associated Press has learned.

The case of the children, aged 11 to 15, who went missing on Dec. 8 in the coastal city of Guayaquil after playing a soccer, has struck a nerve in Ecuador, with rights groups and the public demanding information about their whereabouts and asking that the case be investigated as a forced disappearance.

The surveillance video was handed in to authorities a day after the children went missing, two persons familiar with the investigation told the AP. But an investigation of the military’s role in the disappearance was not announced until 15 days later.

The two spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case. The probe only started after the children's families went on local news channels and social media to demand more action from authorities.

The security footage, showing men in military uniform grabbing two boys and driving off with them in a pickup truck, became public earlier this week. The two children in the video are believed to be among the four who disappeared that night.

On Tuesday, four badly charred bodies were found near an air force base in the city of Taura, officials said, and they were looking into whether the bodies could be of the missing children.

Later that day, 16 soldiers from the base were arrested. Investigators said it could take up to a month to confirm if the bodies are of the children because their fingerprints had been burnt off and forensic workers will have to extract DNA fragments from bones or teeth for identification purposes.

The soldiers are due to appear at a hearing next Tuesday, where they are expected to be charged with the forced disappearance of the children, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

Ecuador’s Defense Minister, Gian Carlo Lofffredo said Thursday that the 16 soldiers will also be questioned by a military tribunal and that the patrol linked to the disappeared children had not been authorized by officers at the Taura base.

Ecuador’s police deferred questions from the AP about the videos to the national prosecutor’s office, which declined to respond. The Ministry of Defense and the Ecuadorean army also did not respond to questions about the footage.

Violence in Ecuador intensified in January after a gang leader escaped from prison amid deadly riots. Two days later, members of another drug gang attacked a television channel and interrupted a live broadcast to make demands to the government.

President Daniel Noboa's government has leaned on the military to curb gang violence . However, the military has now been implicated in several abuses, including the disappearance of two children in August in the central province of Los Rios, and the case of a 19-year-old who was fatally shot by the military at a checkpoint on a road in Guayaquil.

Noboa has promised to reduce violence as he prepares to run for reelection in February.

But many Ecuadorians have expressed their discontent as the homicide rate has tripled in the South American country since 2021, and extortion by drug gangs has forced thousands of people to migrate to the United States.

People protest outside the prosecutor's office against the disappearance of four children who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. The sign reads in Spanish "Where are our children? The four from Guayaquil, Ecuador." (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)

People protest outside the prosecutor's office against the disappearance of four children who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)

A mural of a child and the Spanish message "Where are they?" cover a wall in protest of the disappearance of four children who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)