Good Article about Transfers

[HJJ97NDN]

Why Texas Transfer Rules Keep Stirring Debate Each Year

Any time a Texas high school football player is ruled ineligible after transferring schools, the reaction is almost automatic. Half the internet becomes a legal scholar. The other half becomes a private investigator. Somewhere in the middle, a teenager is just trying to figure out whether he...

texashsfootball.com

 

[HJJ97NDN]

Why Texas Transfer Rules Keep Stirring Debate Each Year

Any time a Texas high school football player is ruled ineligible after transferring schools, the reaction is almost automatic. Half the internet becomes a legal scholar. The other half becomes a private investigator. Somewhere in the middle, a teenager is just trying to figure out whether he...

texashsfootball.com

Biggest misconception I think that the public has is people are not against transferring for a better opportunity, it's just when that happens it messes with the competitive advantage and that needs to change.

 

[4-0-Niner]

Also I think a huge point that is missed here is districts with no zoning rules. My understanding is there are several, such as Dallas ISD, and other major metros. If you live anywhere within the district map, you can attend any school within the ISD. The PAPF do nothing in these areas because every coach making up the local review board works for the same district. We’ve even heard with their own mouths stating they get pencil whipped. I’m not sure if Dallas is but I’ve also heard others are completely open enrollment, where there are no geographical restrictions what so ever. I just feel like there are so many common sense flaws in the current system. In example, if a player claims better educational opportunities as the reason, it isn’t hard to compare thee previous school’s academic benchmarking to the new schools, if the new school is lower then it should be declined, how is that not obvious? If the family moves that shouldn’t be difficult to prove, copy of a mortgage/lease and a utility bill. There are probably hundreds of legitimate moves and transfers, but there is probably equal if not more fraudulent ones that would take about 15 minutes of research to disprove. I think the same level of scrutiny should be applied to all schools regardless of size, demographics or location. I hate to propose anything more bureaucratic, but the current system sucks, lol. I saw Stepp float the idea of a system where open districts automatically play 6A or atleast up a division. I don’t know what the fix is, but it needs to be fixed. When local papers are writing articles on the regular about FBS commits transferring and it isn’t the NCAA portal something has got to give.

 

[HJJ97NDN]

Also I think a huge point that is missed here is districts with no zoning rules. My understanding is there are several, such as Dallas ISD, and other major metros. If you live anywhere within the district map, you can attend any school within the ISD. The PAPF do nothing in these areas because every coach making up the local review board works for the same district. We’ve even heard with their own mouths stating they get pencil whipped. I’m not sure if Dallas is but I’ve also heard others are completely open enrollment, where there are no geographical restrictions what so ever. I just feel like there are so many common sense flaws in the current system. In example, if a player claims better educational opportunities as the reason, it isn’t hard to compare thee previous school’s academic benchmarking to the new schools, if the new school is lower then it should be declined, how is that not obvious? If the family moves that shouldn’t be difficult to prove, copy of a mortgage/lease and a utility bill. There are probably hundreds of legitimate moves and transfers, but there is probably equal if not more fraudulent ones that would take about 15 minutes of research to disprove. I think the same level of scrutiny should be applied to all schools regardless of size, demographics or location. I hate to propose anything more bureaucratic, but the current system sucks, lol. I saw Stepp float the idea of a system where open districts automatically play 6A or atleast up a division. I don’t know what the fix is, but it needs to be fixed. When local papers are writing articles on the regular about FBS commits transferring and it isn’t the NCAA portal something has got to give.

THIS!

 

[IndianFan]

After a quick scan of this opinion piece, my impression is it’s overly sympathetic.

This author makes 3 final points.

1. Protect the rules.
2. But protect the players first.
3. And whenever possible, let the kids play.

This may sound jaded, but let’s be honest. Bottom line is there are schools and coaches that have every intent of beating the system. They may claim student interest is first and foremost. But they bypass the interest of one player for a more talented player that helps them win games. And as pointed out, some districts even enable a focused collection of top athletes on a single team. In no universe is a team collected from a 1,000,000 population equivalent to a team built from a 30,000 population. Yet the UIL still classifies these schools together and implies that it’s fair. It’s naive to not recognize that. The only fair approach is to not only enforce the rules, but strengthen the rules. Enough with the liberal minded, anything goes in the name of a single student mentality. Protect the interests of all the other student athletes who play in the system as intended. Double down on the process to eliminate athletic transfers. And change the system to have those purposefully enhanced teams play on the level that they’ve intentionally joined. It will be difficult to always discern true intent. But easy enough to observe the end results of these teams that bend and break rules. You want to collect the big dogs to your advantage, go play with the big dogs.