What was called a fairy tale season ended with the injection of a villain in the last chapter.
The UBC Thunderbirds disclosed on Tuesday, Dec. 20 a player eligibility violation, which means the team is forfeiting all of its games for the 2011 season.
The issue: 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, which is a breach of Canadian Interuniversity Sport rules governing maximum years of playing time. Although the name of the athlete hasn’t been disclosed, he was not one of four Salmon Arm players on the team roster.
Salmon Arm's Jordan Grieve, named a second-team All-Canadian by CIS for his outstanding season where he led the west with most yards in reception, termed the violation “an unfortunate error.”
“The record books can say whatever they want; we know what we did and the kind of a record we had.”
The team’s individual honours will all remain intact.
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.
UBC’s football schedule next year will not be affected and the Thunderbirds are eligible to compete in next year’s Canada West playoffs, as well as the Vanier Cup.