VANCOUVER – The University of British Columbia's football team is forfeiting all of its games from the 2011 season because of an inadvertent administrative error that led to an eligibility violation, the Canada West Universities Athletic Association has ruled.
A Thunderbird student-athlete participated in all eight regular season games as well as two playoff contests after having exhausted his Canadian Interuniversity Sport eligibility following the 2010-11 season, a breach of CIS Eligibility Regulation 40.10.4.3 – Maximum Years.
UBC self-disclosed the error, which took place prior to the start of the 2009 season but was not discovered until recently, and was specific to misinterpreting the junior football playing rule at the time.
As per the Canada West bylaws, it has been confirmed that UBC will forfeit all games in 2011. All game statistics remain intact, except for the removal of those statistics credited to the ineligible player. All individual honours and awards will remain intact.
UBC's football schedule next year will not be affected and the Thunderbirds are eligibile to compete in next year's Canada West playoffs, as well as the Vanier Cup.
"We are extremely disappointed with this situation and take full responsibility for this error," said
Theresa Hanson, UBC Associate Director, Intercollegiate and High Performance Sport. "We will make the necessary changes to ensure accuracy and efficiency in our eligbility verification process moving forward."
In a separate ruling, Canadian Interuniversity Sport, the governing body for university sports in this country, deemed the violation an inadvertent administrative error. which under CIS bylaws does not warrant a forfeiture of games, but does however warrant a fine associated with the violation.
