BY ROD FRISCO
Of The Patriot-News
For more than a year, the PIAA has batted around a tough and serious transfer rule that has twice been on the brink of passage, only to pull it back for further revision.
Thursday night, the committee charged with making those revisions did something entirely new: It put the rule in the hands of the PIAA’s attorneys.
Unable to reach consensus on a final version of a new rule, one that strictly limits automatic athletic eligibility for transfers that occur after a student’s freshman year, the PIAA’s ad hoc committee on transfers and eligibility has turned to lead counsel Alan Boynton and in-house counsel Michael Solomon to come up with a compromise.
“We’ll definitely makes some changes, “Boynton said following Thursday’s committee meeting. “Whatever approach we take has to be practical, fair and enforceable with the courts.”
Here is the nut of the case:
In the summer of 2006, District 7, annoyed and angry that so many of its by-the-book eligibility cases were being overturned at the PIAA level on appeal, drafted a draconian transfer rule.
In summary, the rule provided for full athletic eligibility for students who transferred from one school to another between their eighth- and ninth-grade years. Otherwise, automatic varsity eligibility was limited, often allowing only for eligibility at the sub-varsity level.
The idea was to eliminate transfers made for athletic reasons. District 7 believed that too many athletes were gaming the system or getting undeserved relief upon appeal.
District 7’s proposal was close to passage in the spring of 2007 when an 11th-hour appeal by the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference to the state Legislature forced the PIAA to review the rule.
Several changes were made, including an expansion of eligibility standards. But even that version met resistance. Some board members, as well as the Catholic Conference and state government, felt that the current rule was working well.
So the PIAA made further revisions, including re-instituting the current practice of principal-to-principal sign-offs, which was not a part of District 7’s original proposal. Currently, if the principals of both the sending and receiving schools sign a form indicating the transfer is not for athletic reasons, the transfer usually occurs without challenge.
But even that new version has been a battleground. The District 7 camp wanted no more changes and a vote on the matter Jan. 24 when the full Board of Directors meets in Upper Allen Twp. But another camp, led by District 1 and District 3, believes too many students of average athletic ability will be harmed by the severity of the rule.
Thursday night, Boynton said, “It’s clear that there are not enough votes on this committee to move this forward to the board as currently written. I suggest that you table this and work on it some more.”
And that’s what will happen. Boynton and Solomon will marry the current rule with the revised District 7 proposal to come up with something old and something new.
“What I heard [last night] is that the district committees want the discretion to hear cases as they wish, “Boynton said. “I plan to increase the flexibility for districts to deal with [transfer] cases. That’s the bottom line.”
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