See what I did there?
You may recall over the last few years we’ve had some guest articles relating to Purdue lacrosse. Well, we’ve got another one and this time there’s something they need from us. Let’s help them out shall we?
This past May Jack Szalankiewicz graduated from West Point with a degree in Chemical Engineering after playing four years on Army’s NCAA DI lacrosse team. This fall he enrolled at Purdue to study Aerospace Engineering and continue his lacrosse career for the Purdue Men’s Club Lacrosse team. Everything was going fine, until last Friday when he was informed by the MCLA (the lacrosse league Purdue plays in) that he was not eligible to play, two days before he was set to suit up for the Boilers and take on Kentucky.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25871270/Lacrosse_1.jpeg)
photographer.var on Instagram, real name Varun Desai
To those unfamiliar with lacrosse, you may be asking, why would a club lacrosse league make a player ineligible? It’s just club lacrosse right? Well it gets complicated.
Although technically club, the MCLA is far from a “beer league.” Lacrosse is not a big NCAA sport, only 73 of the 364 NCAA DI schools have varsity lacrosse, leaving the MCLA to pick up the rest, including 48 Power 5 schools. The league is competitive, a good amount of players have gone on to the pros and NCAA DI level. A good amount of NCAA DI guys transfer in as well. The eligibility rules have also always been strict. You can only play four seasons in the league, and years played in the NCAA count towards your MCLA total. To be an eligible player one must be a full-time student at their school, which is usually 12 credit hours a semester. The league checks player eligibility by having teams submit full rosters, with student ID numbers, to their school’s Office of the Bursar, who will then confirm to the league that every player is eligible. This is done three times throughout the season. These checks are not taken lightly, if a player is found to be ineligible and then plays in a game, the team is disqualified from both National and Conference playoff tournaments.
As with most things, COVID complicated the league’s eligibility rules. The league ruled that the 2020, and 2021 seasons would not count towards eligibility. The NCAA did the same, but then reversed the decision saying if you played 50% of your games in the 2021 season at the NCAA DI or DII level you lose that year. The MCLA kept the rule that 2021 did not count at all if you played in the MCLA.
Fast forward to fall 2024. The players who were freshman in 2021 have graduated and gone on to grad school. An influx of players who played NCAA DI went to grad school to play in the MCLA. These players could not have played another year in the NCAA, however a player who played in the MCLA from 2021-24 were fine to play in the MCLA for one more. However it was never made clear if the NCAA players from 2021-24 could play in the MCLA in 2025. Many assumed they were fine, they enrolled in school and joined a team excited for another season.
This confusion could have been solved over the summer, over even in 2021. Instead the MCLA waited until October to say that all of these players, already enrolled in school and practicing with the team, are ineligible. While I and many others agree with the ruling, the timing couldn’t have been worse. What followed was numerous angry letters and petitions reiterating this message. This led to the MCLA, not reversing the ruling, but instead handling it on a case by case basis. One by one, the league started approving the appeals, as if their initial ruling never happened. They allowed 10+ players, almost everyone, to play. Except for three players.
It would make sense that guys who played less than 50% of their games in 2021 were approved to play while those that played more were denied. It ended up being the complete opposite.
Numerous approved players played more than 50% of their NCAA games in 2021, including one who played in all of them and was a key contributor on the team. Purdue’s Jack Szalankiewicz was denied despite only appearing in three games as a freshman in 2021. He, along with the two other denied players were given zero explanation as to why they were denied while others who played the same or more games were approved. No criteria on the appeals was made public. From an outsider’s perspective it seems like the process was completely random.
There is not much left to do at this point. A self-funded club lacrosse team cannot afford a lawyer to help them. The only thing left to do is bring to light the misguided judgement from the league and unfair punishment guys are facing for just wanting to have fun playing lacrosse while repping their school.
Share this article to help get Jack back in the Black & Gold this season.