PIAA approves stricter transfer rules

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, July 18, 2018 | 4:09 PM

a

UNIVERSITY PARK — The PIAA board of directors placed tighter restrictions on high school transfers Wednesday, an effort to address the competitive imbalance some public school administrators have loudly decried.

Students who transfer any time after the start of 10th grade are now automatically ineligible for postseason play for one year, unless they’re granted a hardship waiver by their PIAA district committee for “exceptional and unusual circumstances.”

Additionally, the board approved a competitive-balance formula that will force the most successful football and basketball teams into a higher classification if that team also received an unusually large number of transfers.

“I don’t think it will fix (the issues) in everybody’s mind,” PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said, “but it’s an attempt to move down the road. … I think this is a great move to try to look at perceived imbalance and if there is imbalance, then let’s address it.”

Bylaw proposals typically require three votes to take effect, but the PIAA board suspended protocol Wednesday to enact the rules more quickly. In recent months, the PIAA also approved a 21-day waiting period that all mid-season transfers must sit out, and launched a web portal “We can all see the issue we have with the transfer rule,” said WPIAL vice president Patrick Mannarino, a member of the PIAA board. “The PIAA is taking steps to correct the transfer rule, or at least slow down those transfers that we don’t believe are for academic intent – those that are for athletic intent. Whether we did that or not, I don’t know, but it’s better than no action.”

The PIAA held its meeting at the Penn Stater Hotel & Conference Center.

The board had debated these rule changes for a few months, and their approval comes less than a week before dozens of public school administrators are scheduled to convene in State College. Organizers of the PIAA Playoff Equity Summit, which the PIAA doesn’t support, want to create separate playoffs for traditional public schools and “schools of choice,” such as private, parochial and charter schools.

Lombardi, who considered the summit “divisive,” praised the PIAA board for its work this summer.

“Each of those constituencies has seats on the board,” Lombardi said, “and they have the opportunity to bring anything forward to the board that they would like.”

The individual transfer rule passed Wednesday takes effect Aug. 6 and affects any athletes who transfer after starting their 10th grade year.

The transfers can play during the regular season, but they are ineligible for the postseason in any sport that they played the season before at their previous school. That means a three-sport athlete who transfers might miss the football, basketball and baseball playoffs in one school year.

However, those who transferred earlier this summer or before Aug. 6 will be exempt.

The PIAA will begin calculating the competitive-balance formula this fall, results that will affect the 2020-21 realignment for football and basketball. At issue is the number of state titles won in recent years by private, parochial and charters schools, at times with help from multiple transfers.

“We’re still really talking two sports: basketball and football,” Lombardi said. “That’s what everybody looks at. The number of private schools that are winning some of our other championships are next to none.”

The competitive-balance formula has two parts: playoff success and transfers. To calculate the formula, the PIAA will award four points for reaching the state finals. A state semifinalist earns three points, two for a quarterfinals or one point to any team that qualifies for the PIAA playoffs.

The PIAA will promote any football or basketball team that accumulates six success points over a two-year period and also meets the transfer threshold: six players for football and three for basketball.

“That’s a real paradigm shift from the past,” Lombardi said. “I think the board has done a great job since last March when they took this on.”

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.