FHSAA's Transfer Rule Dead: Good or Bad?

It was hard not to feel bad for John Stewart Tuesday. The FHSAA commisioner (not the "Daily Show" host) was in attendance at the third meeting of the Student Athlete Recruiting Task Force at Armwood and pretty much had to watch helplessly as his much-ballyhooed transfer rule was officially proclaimed dead.

First, for those who need to catch up, here's some links to previous stories we've done covering the situation, dating back to January:

10/24: On the lack of diversity on the panel. . .

8/27: The first meeting of the task force

3/29: Transfer rules challenged by legislature

3/5: A story about some of the possible unintended consequences of the new by-law

1/25: Initial reaction to the proposed transfer rules

1/25: FHSAA passes new transfer by-laws

Stewart became commisioner a couple years ago, and one of his pet projects was to institute tough rules that would stem the transfer of students from school to school for athletic reasons. In January, the FHSAA passed what it called "a comprehensive" transfer policy that would, for the most part, require any student-athlete who transferred high schools to sit out a year of varsity sports. There were 10 exceptions built into the rule, but pretty much it came down to this: unless it was blatantly obvious that an athlete wasn't transferring for athletic reasons, he or she had to sit out a year of sports. Coaches were tired of watching players hop from school to school like free agents, and principals and the FHSAA were tired of dealing with recruiting allegations.

But there was a faction of people -- most from private schools -- who felt the new rules violated Florida state law regarding school choice. That faction lobbied legislators to intercede, which they did, passing a bill that forced the FHSAA to hold off on instituting its new by-laws for a year. In the mean time, the Student Athlete Recruiting Task Force was created to study recruiting in the state.

Which brings us back to Tuesday: Throughout its first two meetings, the task force served a dual purpose: to study recruiting, and to study students who transferred for athletic reasons (but weren't necesarilly recruited). The FHSAA has been attempting to lump both together. But on Tuesday, committee chairman Dudley Goodlette, who is responsible for recommending to legislature what the proper rules to institute, said he wouldn't support penalizing all transfers because it would violate school choice and leave the FHSAA open to litigation.

From this point forward, the task force will deal solely with recruiting, cutting athletic transfers out of the equation.

Stewart obviously isn't happy about the decision. And, in all honesty, his solution was the only realistic way to eliminate recruiting. Anything short of eliminating the ease with which student can transfer will simply be tilting at wind mills. It boils down to this: if you get caught recruiting, you are either unhealthily brazen or completely stupid. There are so many ways around the rules, so many ways to implicitly encourage a kid to attend your school, that you'd be foolish to do anything that would leave you tangibly culpable.

But as one person said to me, Stewart's solution was like "throwing the baby out with the bathwater." There were simply too many potential unintended consequences. Many other states have similar rules, but those states don't have Florida's style of school choice.

Here are the transfer laws in other states:

http://www.oppaga.state.fl.us/sataskforce/statebystate.pdf

So what now? The task force will attempt to make recommendations on how to curb recruiting.

Feel free to give your input. Is recruiting really a problem? Can it be dealt with? How? Was the FHSAA misguided in its attempt to institute its new by-law? Do you agree with the task force's decision?

Comments

St. Pete Catholic can now sleep soundly.

CCC, Countryside, Largo, AFA and Dixie too.

[danyell]

VINCENT G. BEST KICKER

"CCC, Countryside, Largo, AFA and Dixie too." Where is the proof

Which teams are on probation? WHich teams have been caught multiple times? The proof is in the pudding. SPC cheats.....over and over again.

I feel it's a shame the rule did not pass. I know of athletes who have played a fall sport for school "A" and transferred to play a spring sport in school "B". That is simply not right. For athletes to transfer schools any time they want is not right. Don't give me the excuse that private schools would lose money because they could not have athletes transferring in or they would have athletes transferring out. They could just as easily allow more non-athletes into their school to make up for their expenses.... This rule would have helped with the recruiting going on in all sports and the beuacrats succumbed to the private school folks whining to the legislature. When the FHSAA committee has a 44-8 vote in favor of this rule and it gets shot down, what does that say about the power or influence of our state athletic association?

Sundaes all around. Ice Cream facotry in the HOUSE! New Junior quarterback coming in for next season. If you cant coach em up transfer em in.