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From: "Andrew Tucker" <andrew.tucker@warwick.ac.uk>
To: <student-ultimate@egroups.com>, <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 21:37:43 -0000
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Subject: Midland's Student Qualifier: GBH Decision
Reply-to: Andrew.Tucker@warwick.ac.uk
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I don't want to get involved in the particulars of this case, but I have 
been involved in student ultimate on and off for 8 years (gulp!), and I 
don't think that in any of those 8 years there hasn't been some sort 
of frantic debate involving student eligibility issues.To make matters 
worse this issue always seems to be raised just after a tournament 
as a result of some sort of controversial result, and so is never 
discussed outside the narrow boundaries of a certain team's 
viewpoint. But each year if it's not about part-time students, then 
it's post-graduates, or juniors, or students who go to a university 
without an ultimate team, or foreigners or whatever.... I could go on.

For some time I have strongly advocated that student ultimate has 
grown to such an extent, that it should now become a strictly inter-
university competition run along the lines adopted by BUSA. 
Obviously we all know that student ultimate for various reasons is 
not a BUSA sport, but it would be very easy for us to adopt their 
eligibility criteria, which both for individuals and institutions clear up 
very effectively all these difficult issues for us. These are readily 
available and would bring ultimate inline with every other university 
sport. Admittedly these rules are fairly strict, but I see that as part 
of their advantage. Unfortunately it seems eligibility is an issue that 
has repeatedly shown itself too difficult to rely on some vague 
interpretation of spirit. Luckily there are now enough non-student 
tournaments being run that those teams or individuals who might 
be made ineligible can still play plenty of great and competitive 
ultimate against a wide variety of student and non-student 
opposition.

Otherwise I can inevitably see this debate annually re-occuring and 
more otherwise great student tournaments also becoming 
unfortunately soured in a similar way.....  

Andy Tucker (Norm)