[BD] Uni student eligability

[Samuel Hird]

Hey everyone!

I just read the eligibility rules for Div 1 today. I was seriously 
disappointed to read that players from neighboring institutions would 
no longer be eligible to compete in the now BUSA affiliated 
tournaments. Correct me if I?m wrong, but I never heard the slightest 
mention of the exclusion of players during the discussions about 
joining BUSA. Will the same rules apply to regionals next year? How 
about outdoors? Why haven?t we been told?

In the previous rules, players were eligible from the nearest 
institutions provided they could demonstrate suitable links and 
submitted an application to the uni/regional co-ordinator. These rules 
are great and necessary for new teams, especially the smaller 
institutions that they relate to, in order for them to get their feet 
off the ground. Even established university clubs can have bad years 
and I know many London clubs that have temporarily joined together in 
hard times. Within the last 2 years UCL and LSE had to join together 
temporarily and now separately they?re doing fantastically. I?ve never 
heard of a whole team not entering a tournament to play under the 
umbrella of another team and do well. And with more and more 
institutions having their own teams, I cant see it happening.

This is probably something that doesn?t affect most of the bigger, 
campus universities, but is this something that we really want for the 
sport? So many of us spend so much of our time promoting the sport to 
just about everyone, from our university unions to a wave of recent TV 
appearances, particularly by open teams. Preventing university students 
from playing university tournaments restricts the sport at a grass 
roots level, where many many players enter the sport. Can the exclusion 
of student players really be a step forward? There are so many 
institutions, especially in London, with its lack of affordable 
facilities, that are too small to be able to field their own ultimate 
team now, and probably for the foreseeable future with many keen 
players that are going to seriously lose out, which can only be bad for 
the sport.

I?m obviously against the move and would hate to see it continue if the 
majority of others feel the same. No-ones voiced their opinion as yet. 
Id be interested to see what others think.

At the very least could someone answer my questions in the 1st paragraph.

Sam


-- 
Samuel Hird
samuel.hird at kcl.ac.uk