Final: PN-G Indians 35, La Porte Bulldogs 21

CS said:
Anyone in Texas gov plan to do anything to stop what open enrollment is doing to the sport? Genuinely curious.
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That is a much more complicated subject. The Democrats in the Legislature seem to like the idea of open enrollments and athletic transfers.

I will say that I think the days of the UIL turing a blind eye to all the transfers into SOC are numbered.
 
bandkid said:
That is a much more complicated subject. The Democrats in the Legislature seem to like the idea of open enrollments and athletic transfers.

I will say that I think the days of the UIL turing a blind eye to all the transfers into SOC are numbered.
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It’s incredible it’s taken so long. It’s one thing to have open enrollment. It’s another to use it to completely bypass the normal cycle of talent and growth. There’s a reason most teams don’t have as much natural talent as SOC and it’s not random coincidence. If it was all “homegrown” why is every other team in DISD such an embarrassing mess? And statewide media pretends they’re just like any other team.
 
bandkid said:
That is a much more complicated subject. The Democrats in the Legislature seem to like the idea of open enrollments and athletic transfers.

I will say that I think the days of the UIL turing a blind eye to all the transfers into SOC are numbered.
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The fact that they call it Academic transfers and get away with it is abysmal.
 
Rez said:
It’s incredible it’s taken so long. It’s one thing to have open enrollment. It’s another to use it to completely bypass the normal cycle of talent and growth. There’s a reason most teams don’t have as much natural talent as SOC and it’s not random coincidence. If it was all “homegrown” why is every other team in DISD such an embarrassing mess? And statewide media pretends they’re just like any other team.
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I don't disagree with anything you just said. The problem, as with so many other political issues, is the difference in perspectives between the small towns and rural areas of the state and the urban areas of the state. We tend to see this as an issue of talent parity between competing schools. For residents of school districts that only have one high school in town, that makes sense.

In urban areas that have multiple local high schools, this is viewed less as a talent issue than as a magnet issue. If all the best football players in town want to transfer to one high school because it's got the best football program in town, what's the problem? How is that any different than all the best performing arts students wanting to transfer to the performing arts magnet school? Or all the students who want to be nurses and doctors transferring to the medical magnet? Or all the students who want to be scientists and engineers transferring to the math and science magnet? Would we demand those practices be curtailed or eliminated to protect parity in HOSA competitions, band, choir or theater competitions, or UIL academics?

In my opinion, the solution is pretty simple. You want to run a high school on an open enrollment model? Fine. At least for athletics, that school has to compete in the next classification above the one it would ordinarily be placed in based on enrollment, regardless of whether the school accepts students from outside its district or, if it's in a multi-high school district, only from anywhere within its own district. That preserves parity while still enabling student athletes to compete on the best team in their area. And besides, having the best athletes in your district play stronger competition should ultimately facilitate more development for them, anyway.

But to be clear, that is my personal opinion and does not represent the views of my employer.
 
This is where people misunderstand what we are saying. I definitely understand why the transferring is going on, why wouldn't you want to play for the best program if you were able. The only problem is that we do not have the same rules which makes it unfair. Playing up in the next division makes perfect sense just like the Catholic Schools do.
 
And in the meantime as a Super Team, you are likely going to steal away a lot of Pride and Joy and hard work from some team that can't play within the same rulebook as you are allowed.
 
Rez said:
It’s incredible it’s taken so long. It’s one thing to have open enrollment. It’s another to use it to completely bypass the normal cycle of talent and growth. There’s a reason most teams don’t have as much natural talent as SOC and it’s not random coincidence. If it was all “homegrown” why is every other team in DISD such an embarrassing mess? And statewide media pretends they’re just like any other team.
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100%
Our JV WOULD beat almost if not all of the other teams in their district
 
bandkid said:
The official reason offered by the UIL is that too many academic broadcasts were violating the guidelines the UIL promulgates for those broadcasts to ensure the academic broadcasts permitted by the UIL comply with the agreements the UIL has entered into with the various commercial services that stream the game (e.g., TexanLive, Bally Sports, etc.).

The Texas Legislature has considered legislation on this subject as recently as this year. During the regular session in the Spring, Senator Bryan Hughes. R-Mexia, and Representative Cole Hefner, R-Mount Pleasant, filed SB 2511 and HB 4375, respectively. Those bills proposed to safeguard the broadcasting rights of both local broadcasters, like our Cool 92.5 FM radio broadcast, and academic broadcasts, like the NDN Press livestream. Unfortunately, those bills were filed late in the session and didn't move in their respective Senate and House committees.

My free word of friendly advice to anyone reading this is to contact the offices of Senator Hughes and Representative Hefner and encourage them to refile SB 2511 and HB 4375 when the Legislature convenes its next regular session in Austin in January, 2027. I would also recommend reaching out to the legislators who represent local districts in the Golden Triangle to express support for the bills, namely Senator Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, Representative Christian Manuel, D-Port Arthur, and Representative (formerly Speaker) Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont. Because Senator Nichols and Representative Phelan are retiring at the conclusion of their current terms, I would also recommend reaching out to Representative Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin, who is running to replace Senator Nichols and is the most likely candidate to win, and to Dr. Ray Callas, R-Beaumont, who is running to replace Representative Phelan and is the most likely candidate to win.

Lastly, I would recommend reaching out to Representative Janis Holt, R-Silsbee. Though Representative Holt does not represent Jefferson or Orange Counties, she is a Groves native and a PN-G grad, c/o 1975, who lived in Port Neches until the mid-90s and continues to root for the Indians today. She is also a former Silsbee ISD school board member, and SB 2511 and HB 4375 would protect the SETXSports broadcast of the Silsbee games led by Mike Sanchez, too. I have very little doubt she would get on board with both bills.

You can find the contact information for all of the sitting senators and representatives at the following websites:

senate.texas.gov

The Texas State Senate Texas Senators of the 89th Legislature |

This is the official website for the Senate of the State of Texas; providing news, information, and broadcasts of the Texas Senate.
senate.texas.gov senate.texas.gov

house.texas.gov

Texas House of Representatives

Texas House of Representatives provides information on legislation, committees, sessions, and the Texas House
house.texas.gov house.texas.gov

Until he wins election and is inaugurated, Dr. Callas will need to be contacted through his campaign.
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I can find no information on the UIL website confirming the banning of postseason academic video broadcasts. In contrast, the section entitled “Post Season Video Broadcast Information,” along with the subsection “Non-Commercial Academic Broadcasts,” indicates that in the event that a particular postseason game is not broadcast by a UIL partner (i.e., Victory+ or NFHS for the 2025-2026 season), a non-commercial academic broadcast can occur with the approval of the UIL, the contest venue, and both schools involved in the contest. Why would the UIL website indicate this if such broadcasts are definitely banned?
 
NDNzeke said:
I can find no information on the UIL website confirming the banning of postseason academic video broadcasts. In contrast, the section entitled “Post Season Video Broadcast Information” under the subsection “Non-Commercial Academic Broadcasts” indicates that in the event that a particular postseason game is not broadcast by a UIL partner (i.e., Victory+ or NFHS for the 2025-2026 season), a non-commercial academic broadcast can occur with the approval of the UIL, the contest venue, and both schools involved in the contest. Why would the UIL website indicate this if such broadcasts are definitely banned?
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The issue for PN-G is that virtually all of the 5A and 6A playoff games are picked up by a commercial streaming service. The policy may not be a ban per se, but it is a ban in effect, and the UIL knows this.
 
NDNzeke said:
I can find no information on the UIL website confirming the banning of postseason academic video broadcasts. In contrast, the section entitled “Post Season Video Broadcast Information” under the subsection “Non-Commercial Academic Broadcasts” indicates that in the event that a particular postseason game is not broadcast by a UIL partner (i.e., Victory+ or NFHS for the 2025-2026 season), a non-commercial academic broadcast can occur with the approval of the UIL, the contest venue, and both schools involved in the contest. Why would the UIL website indicate this if such broadcasts are definitely banned?
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This condition is not likely to ever occur so essentially the same limits.

“in the event that a particular postseason game is not broadcast by a UIL partner (i.e., Victory+ or NFHS for the 2025-2026 season)”
 
bandkid said:
I don't disagree with anything you just said. The problem, as with so many other political issues, is the difference in perspectives between the small towns and rural areas of the state and the urban areas of the state. We tend to see this as an issue of talent parity between competing schools. For residents of school districts that only have one high school in town, that makes sense.

In urban areas that have multiple local high schools, this is viewed less as a talent issue than as a magnet issue. If all the best football players in town want to transfer to one high school because it's got the best football program in town, what's the problem? How is that any different than all the best performing arts students wanting to transfer to the performing arts magnet school? Or all the students who want to be nurses and doctors transferring to the medical magnet? Or all the students who want to be scientists and engineers transferring to the math and science magnet? Would we demand those practices be curtailed or eliminated to protect parity in HOSA competitions, band, choir or theater competitions, or UIL academics?

In my opinion, the solution is pretty simple. You want to run a high school on an open enrollment model? Fine. At least for athletics, that school has to compete in the next classification above the one it would ordinarily be placed in based on enrollment, regardless of whether the school accepts students from outside its district or, if it's in a multi-high school district, only from anywhere within its own district. That preserves parity while still enabling student athletes to compete on the best team in their area. And besides, having the best athletes in your district play stronger competition should ultimately facilitate more development for them, anyway.

But to be clear, that is my personal opinion and does not represent the views of my employer.
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That’s the solution I like - If you want to be open enrollment, go nuts. But, it automatically bumps you up one classification above where you would have fallen with a normal count.
 
Rez said:
That’s the solution I like - If you want to be open enrollment, go nuts. But, it automatically bumps you up one classification above where you would have fallen with a normal count.
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Agree
Rez said:
That’s the solution I like - If you want to be open enrollment, go nuts. But, it automatically bumps you up one classification above where you would have fallen with a normal count.
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And science, math, etc (academics) isn’t a competitive thing (yet) yes I get UIL competition but no one is moving schools to compete in UIL math contests
To me it’s WAY different
Similar to the Jesuit schools they should go at least one “A” up (5A to 6A) (two steps)
 
bandkid said:
The issue for PN-G is that virtually all of the 5A and 6A playoff games are picked up by a commercial streaming service. The policy may not be a ban per se, but it is a ban in effect, and the UIL knows this.
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As far as I know, it has always been the case that the student broadcasts were not allowed for any postseason game that was broadcast by a UIL partner. The only difference (it seems) is that in the past the partner was Fox Sports/Bally and this year it is Victory+ and NFHS. Victory+ plans to broadcast a total of 20 playoff games (excluding the championships) across all classifications, so my guess is that NDN press would definitely be excluded from any high profile playoff games due to the Victory+ broadcast of those games. However, with about four games per playoff round across the entire state (20/5 rounds), there will certainly be many potential PNG games they will not broadcast. And in the event that NDN press is blocked by a Victory+ broadcast, the game would still be available on that platform for free. The only part of this situation I am not real clear about is the NFHS part, but in the past I do not recall them broadcasting very many PNG playoff games. Unless this changes this year, I do not expect them to be much of a hindrance to NDN press. Also, I know that they are aligned with Texan Live, and I don’t know whether, like in the regular season, the school district has a say in whether a NFHS/Texan Live playoff game is broadcast by them (please let me know if you know the answer to this).

Am I understanding all of this correctly? If so, my understanding is that the biggest chance of NDN press being blocked from a playoff game would be when it is broadcast by Victory+, and in that case it could still be watched for free on that platform. I am sure this issue is very important for other out of towner PNG fans, like myself, that have little hope of attending any playoff games and have become used to being able to watch them march thru the playoffs during the last few years.
 
Rez said:
That’s the solution I like - If you want to be open enrollment, go nuts. But, it automatically bumps you up one classification above where you would have fallen with a normal count.
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EXACTLY!! Maybe even throw in a few more things to consider if a team should be required play up or not besides just open enrollment. SOC could be used as the PERFECT example of one that SHOULD because they check ALL the boxes…open enrollment, a LARGE # of TRANSFERS participating in UIL Sports, and a PROVEN track record of being able to compete with some of the BEST teams in the larger classifications!!
 
NDNzeke said:
As far as I know, it has always been the case that the student broadcasts were not allowed for any postseason game that was broadcast by a UIL partner. The only difference (it seems) is that in the past the partner was Fox Sports/Bally and this year it is Victory+ and NFHS. Victory+ plans to broadcast a total of 20 playoff games (excluding the championships) across all classifications, so my guess is that NDN press would definitely be excluded from any high profile playoff games due to the Victory+ broadcast of those games. However, with about four games per playoff round across the entire state (20/5 rounds), there will certainly be many potential PNG games they will not broadcast. And in the event that NDN press is blocked by a Victory+ broadcast, the game would still be available on that platform for free. The only part of this situation I am not real clear about is the NFHS part, but in the past I do not recall them broadcasting very many PNG playoff games. Unless this changes this year, I do not expect them to be much of a hindrance to NDN press. Also, I know that they are aligned with Texan Live, and I don’t know whether, like in the regular season, the school district has a say in whether a NFHS/Texan Live playoff game is broadcast by them (please let me know if you know the answer to this).

Am I understanding all of this correctly? If so, my understanding is that the biggest chance of NDN press being blocked from a playoff game would be when it is broadcast by Victory+, and in that case it could still be watched for free on that platform. I am sure this issue is very important for other out of towner PNG fans, like myself, that have little hope of attending any playoff games and have become used to being able to watch them march thru the playoffs during the last few years.
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Not to beat a dead horse but after reading your response and it making sense, I went and found the post from NDN Press on FB. It was Aug 28. It basically says that the UIL sent notice that student led broadcasts will no longer be approved for the playoffs. So their live broadcasts will end at the conclusion of the regular season.
It does give the UIL email and phone number if a person wanted further explanations. So I don't understand what's going on.
 
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