Oklahoma's new high school version of the "Transfer Portal".

[Okie4570]

Not sure how many here follow HS sports like I do, but this will kill athletics for some of the small schools in OK. That doesn't make me against it whatsoever, but I think that's what will happen in the end.

Small districts that don't offer football or baseball or fast pitch softball or soccer or volleyball, those athletes will just make the drive to a nearby district that does.

 

[caliberbob]

I’m still learning Oklahoma sports. But couldn’t this also work to an advantage for some smaller schools? If a great athlete at a 6A school won’t get a ton of playing time but knows he/she would stand out in say a 4A they could transfer there and play more and still get noticed by scouts? Idk, that was just my first thought.

 

[Okie4570]

I’m still learning Oklahoma sports. But couldn’t this also work to an advantage for some smaller schools? If a great athlete at a 6A school won’t get a ton of playing time but knows he/she would stand out in say a 4A they could transfer there and play more and still get noticed by scouts? Idk, that was just my first thought.

It could very well do that. Athletes usually move up for exposure rather than down but that could very well happen. I know I've seen several standout 2A/3A athletes in both football and basketball make the mistake of going to a bigger program/class only to never be heard from or seen again. I know one who was perfectly fine knowing he'd be standing on the sideline watching his sophomore through senior year but would get a state championship ring all the same. He would have been a 3 or 4 year starter and a standout player if he wouldn't have moved just to be in that program.

 

[jakeman]

I don’t know how I feel about any of that.


I do know that when I was in HS we had a few kids from small schools in the area that came to Duncan to play sports, but went to school where they lived. We had a couple from Empire and a few from Bray. No clue if that was legal at the time or if it ever has been, but it happened.

 

[dennishoddy]

When Morrison Ok had the record for the most undefeated 8 man football seasons in history, people from 6A schools were buying chicken coops in Morrison, putting out mail boxes and TV antennas to establish residency there so their kid could be part of that historic run.

https://www.nfhs.org/articles/morrison-was-record-setting-oklahoma-eight-player-football-program/

 

[mtnboomr]

Texas has been doing it for decades.

 

[rawhide]

I don’t know how I feel about any of that.


I do know that when I was in HS we had a few kids from small schools in the area that came to Duncan to play sports, but went to school where they lived. We had a couple from Empire and a few from Bray. No clue if that was legal at the time or if it ever has been, but it happened.

Can't say that I know what the current rule is, but at one time it was allowed. But Duncan would have to include the enrollment from the smaller schools with theirs for the purpose of determining the class Duncan would compete in.

 

[rawhide]

Not sure how many here follow HS sports like I do, but this will kill athletics for some of the small schools in OK. That doesn't make me against it whatsoever, but I think that's what will happen in the end.

Small districts that don't offer football or baseball or fast pitch softball or soccer or volleyball, those athletes will just make the drive to a nearby district that does.

View attachment 435757

I don't know of any small schools that don't offer baseball, softball, and basketball. Many of them do not have football, wrestling, and soccer.

If a district offers virtual, as many now do, the student would only have to show up for their athletic period. A result of covid was that OSSAA changed the rule that allowed the athletic period to count as their face to face period to be eligible to compete.

I'm not sure how this will play out, but we could see urban students competing at small schools where, for example, basketball or baseball is king. We may see them going both directions. Like the rule or not it puts public schools on a more even footing with private schools and eliminates the need for OSSAA to have to deal with a large number of hardship petitions that resulted from open transfers. However, OSSAA says that recruiting is still not allowed and supercedes the transfer rule.