OSSAA HS sports open transfer rule will impact OK

How Oklahoma high school sports transfer rule could impact state: 'It's the Wild West'
Jacob Unruh, The Oklahoman June 13, 2024

As a longtime high school football coach, Lynn Shackelford sees a divide forming across the state this summer.

The haves and the have-nots will be all too real. As in, have transfers and does not have transfers.

Cashion Public Schools, where Shackelford is the head coach and athletic director, does not accept transfers. The small community 33 miles northwest of Oklahoma City is growing at a rapid pace. New houses pop up regularly. Space in the school is shrinking.

So, there will be no star athlete arriving as a transfer.

But other schools across Oklahoma will welcome transfers.

“As a coach with the knowledge that we don’t take them and there are some schools that do, we’ve talked about it as a staff about how it’s going to be a disadvantage for places like us,” Shackelford said. “And we’re not the only ones. There’s a lot of places that don’t take transfers.

“But if you’re a school that does, in my opinion, you’ve got a little bit of an advantage over schools that don’t.”

In a time where the landscape of college athletics has shifted with the transfer portal, Oklahoma high school sports could be impacted in a similar way.

Late last year, the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association adopted an exception to its residency rule that prevented transfers without meeting certain criteria. Beginning July 1, each student-athlete gets a one-time transfer exception provided they had never transferred schools.

Undoubtedly, the whole dynamic of high school sports will be impacted.

“Oklahoma feels just like the college football transfer portal,” said Caden Knighten, a star running back committed to Baylor who transferred from Wynnewood to nearby Pauls Valley in May, ahead of the new rule’s implementation.

“Everybody’s talking about being on the move to go somewhere else. They’re talking about it all the time. It’s going to change high school football in Oklahoma in so many ways. But I agree with it. I think it’s a good thing.”

Those in favor of the rule exception welcome the ability for a student-athlete to change their situation hopefully for the better.

But skeptics worry about a Wild Wild West forming. Superteams could be built. Players could just get upset with a coach and transfer. Moves would perhaps be made so fast that nobody could keep up.

“I don’t see it that way,” OSSAA Executive Director David Jackson said. “We think we have some safeguards in there. We’ll evaluate it after we’ve been doing it for a year or so. Maybe there will need to be some additional safeguards.

“But I really believe once we have a year or so of doing this, I think when people realize that some of the guardrails are there, I’m going to be curious to see if it’s used as much as what some people think it will be.”

Either way, change is quickly coming.

It’s the hottest topic in high school sports across the state. Moves will happen. It’s just unclear exactly who and where.

“I’ve heard some stuff about the bigger names and stuff like that,” Knighten said. “There’s some up in (Oklahoma City), some in Tulsa. I don’t want to say what they’re going to do until they do it. It’ll be out there.”

How OSSAA put guardrails in place for transfer rule

Throughout nearly three decades at the OSSAA, Jackson would have never envisioned open transfers being allowed.

The rules simply did not allow it.

OSSAA’s Rule 8 established residency eligibility. Transferring without a physical move required a hardship waiver to be approved by OSSAA staff members or perhaps the board of directors through an appeal for immediate eligibility. Otherwise, that student was required to sit out from OSSAA activities for a full calendar year.

Then, state lawmakers passed an open-transfer law for all grades and students that went into effect in 2022. There was no more picking and choosing among transfers who applied to schools. Instead, schools with space had to accept transfers in order of application. Schools began to closely monitor and even cap the limit of students in each grade.

That complicated things for the OSSAA.

It was likely more legislation was coming.

“We wanted to get ahead of that and at least do something,” Jackson said. “Even though we may not favor a free transfer anytime, at least create something that we can put some guardrails around and manage.”

So, the OSSAA approved an exception to Rule 8 allowing one free transfer to all students who have established athletic eligibility at another school, have not previously transferred and are not transferring to a school that employs a coach they have played for in high school or club sports in the past year.

Though the state’s open transfer application process began June 1, the OSSAA’s exception goes into effect July 1, and a student must be accepted or placed on a waiting list by the new school by July 15. A transfer after that period must apply for and receive a hardship waiver.

The OSSAA is still requiring hardship waiver paperwork to be filed during the open transfer period as a way to monitor movement and curb multiple transfers.

Jackson believes that and the inability to transfer back to the original school will deter chaos.

“We see that at a very high rate and the general public doesn’t,” Jackson said. “What we see in dealing with these hardship waivers, a good number want to go back. That’s not going to be allowed here. Once you do it once, you’ve pretty much burned it.

“I think once people realize that, they’re really going to give some hard consideration on whether (they) want to do it in the first place.”

Those types of guardrails are what most coaches wanted when the rule was being formed.

Transfer rules vary from state to state. One local coach pointed to Florida, which allows open transfers and even grants eligibility to students to remain on their previous school’s team to complete the season while attending class at a new school.

“I feel like what the association did is they kind of got that under control a little bit,” Carl Albert football coach and athletic director Mike Dunn said. “Yes, it will empower kids a little bit, but it’s still not gonna be like a for-sure thing where you can just up and (transfer).”

How are schools handling the transfer rule?

Dunn makes sure the first thing he tells someone who calls to ask about transferring to Carl Albert is understood.

There is no room.

Not with the Titans, winners of seven of the last eight Class 5A state championships. Not even with Mid-Del Public Schools.

“The only way you’re going to become a student at Carl Albert or Mid-Del right now is to make a bona fide move,” Dunn said.

Several coaches, administrators, parents and athletes declined to talk when contacted by The Oklahoman. But among those who did speak, capacity issues at all levels became a common theme.

Lynn Shackelford estimated Cashion receives 20-50 phone calls each month asking about transfer space. Each request is denied if there is not a physical move to the community.

Large schools are generally not an option for transfers either.

“I don't think that rule is going to have a huge effect in 6A because of schools being at capacity,” new Putnam City boys basketball coach Brandon Jackson said. “But regardless, I'm going to coach whoever's in my locker room.”

No matter the classification, coaching moves have already left rosters uncertain for the next school year. Families could split siblings between nearby schools. Rumors run wild and completely unchecked. Social media is abuzz more than normal.

It’s enough to make heads spin.

But the new reality is here to stay, whether a school can participate or not.

“All these kids on Twitter posting pictures in front of their new schools, it’s the Wild West out there right now for a lot of places,” Shackelford said.

Contributing: Staff writers Jordan Davis and Nick Sardis