Bishop’s self-discloses use of an ineligible player

Source: RSEQ Communications

MONTREAL - The Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) has announced changes to the final RSEQ university football league standings after Bishop’s University self-disclosed the use of an ineligible player in two games this season.

Last Friday, the RSEQ and Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) received an e-mail from a concerned citizen containing a detailed list of potential eligibility issues at each of the six RSEQ football member institutions. At the request of the RSEQ and CIS, members conducted additional eligibility reviews of their football rosters at which time Bishop’s discovered that it had unintentionally used an ineligible player in games versus Concordia on September 1, 2012 and Montreal on September 15, 2012. As per RSEQ and CIS policy, the identity of the student-athlete will not be released.

The RSEQ has applied the automatic sanction of forfeiture in both games; however the result of Bishop’s 45-15 loss to Montreal on September 15th will be unchanged. The other game, one that the Concordia Stingers had previously forfeited to Bishop’s for the use of an ineligible student-athlete, will be recorded as a 0-0 double-forfeit and be purged from the standings. Statistics for all eligible players are retained.

“Bishop’s University’s Gaiters football program is committed to promoting the development of responsible student athletes. One of our fundamental values is respect for fair competition,” said Brian Breckles, Director of Athletics and Recreation.  “We are committed to integrity and transparency and we take pride in our positive relationship with the RSEQ and CIS. We have fully cooperated with these organizations. Once we discovered that an administrative error had occurred, we immediately disclosed the information to these organizations.  We are confident that this error was made in good faith, nonetheless we regret our mistake. Our team and our coaches understand the sanctions which will be applied by the RESQ and CIS as a result of this unfortunate situation. We will conduct a thorough review of our procedures to ensure that an error like this does not recur.”

For the final RSEQ university football league standings, please visit http://www.sportetudiant-stats.com/universitaire/football/.