By Staff
EAST LANSING - The Michigan High School Athletic Association's Executive Committee upheld the application of the organization's forfeiture rule in a case involving Battle Creek Lakeview High School's football team at its October meeting Thursday.
Earlier in the month, Lakeview High School reported the use of an ineligible player in its first five football games of the 2004 season, a violation of MHSAA Handbook rules all schools voluntarily adopt by school board resolution when joining the Association each school year.
The school was appealing the application of the forfeiture of each game in which the ineligible player was used.
There were six instances during the first eight weeks of the 2004 football season where a school has had to forfeit anywhere from one to five games for the use of an ineligible player, with three of those occurrences affecting a school's eligibility for the District round of the MHSAA Football Playoffs. On 18 previous occasions since the Fall of 1993, schools have appealed to the Executive Committee and/or the MHSAA Representative Council that the requirement of forfeiture be waived.
The fact that forfeitures may affect qualification for post-season tournaments in football contributes to the fact that 11 of the 18 requests for waiver involved varsity football games. All such previous requests were denied.
The MHSAA Executive Committee is made up of five individuals from the MHSAA Representative Council, the Association's 19-member governing board. The Executive Committee meets monthly during the school year to hear appeals of regulations by member schools.