OSSAA board meets on Rule 14: What's next after private-school court ruling?

There wasn’t an empty seat when the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association Board of Directors meeting started Wednesday morning.

Oklahoma high school football coaches and athletic directors filled the chairs designated for spectators, while more guests overflowed into the hallway. Board meetings don’t typically attract these large crowds, but with a major decision looming, this one garnered statewide interest.

Coaches are waiting to find out what will happen with football districts.

A lawsuit filed by five Oklahoma private high schools resulted in an Oklahoma County District Court ruling April 9 that prohibits the OSSAA from enforcing its amendments to Rule 14, the association’s rule focused on private schools. The rule elevates private schools to higher athletic classifications based on postseason success, so with the court’s preliminary injunction taking effect July 1, football districts will shuffle.

Although uncertainty remains, the OSSAA took a step Wednesday in the reclassification and redistricting process. The board voted to use the member schools’ first-quarter average daily membership statistics from Oct. 1, 2023, to form the new 2024-25 and 2025-26 football classifications.

This diverges from the original 2024-25 and 2025-26 classifications and districts, which were based on end-of-year statistics from June 2023. The OSSAA approved those now-defunct districts during the summer.

Average daily membership, or ADM, measures the average number of students at a school on a daily basis, so it can fluctuate significantly from one school year to the next. Coupled with the Rule 14 changes, the new ADM numbers could potentially alter every football classification.

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In choosing to use the October numbers, the OSSAA board listened to its member schools. Norman North football coach Justin Jones, the Oklahoma Football Coaches Association’s executive director, said the OFBCA’s region representatives and advisory board have unanimously voted in favor of using the October numbers. Those groups included representatives from every football classification, Jones said.

For those coaches, the tedious redistricting process is worth it to create classifications that accurately reflect member schools’ enrollment numbers.

“I know it’s going to be tough,” Jones said. “But our executive board is meeting with me (Wednesday) after this meeting so that we can put our plan in place and move forward so that we can get this done diligently over the next three weeks.”

Jones said the OFBCA can have new district recommendations drafted by next week so the OSSAA board can vote on them before June.

The OSSAA board also voted Wednesday to create an ad hoc committee to address Rule 14’s future. The OSSAA then issued a statement saying executive director David Jackson, assistant director Grant Gower, OSSAA attorneys and board members will serve on the committee.

"The committee will explore a resolution of the pending litigation and what Rule 14 will look like going forward," the statement reads.

Early in Wednesday's meeting, the board entered executive session for two hours to discuss the Rule 14 lawsuit. Outside the closed boardroom, coaches and athletic directors filled the hallway and lobby, anxiously waiting to return so public discussion on football districts could commence.

The districts are changing primarily because the court ruling threw out the multi-class bump for private schools and brought back the Class 5A cap. This means a private school cannot move more than one class higher than its ADM and can advance no higher than Class 5A.

The OSSAA's meeting agenda listed discussion of baseball reclassification for 2024-25, but the board decided to hold off and focus on the more immediate matter of football.

“We know people are wondering where they will be,” said OSSAA board president Stacey Butterfield, superintendent at Jenks. “Our coaches, our athletic directors across the state, need time to be able to put together schedules, so we know timing is critical, and everyone will be working judiciously to get this accomplished.”

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‘Linked rule’ to prevent athletes from following coaches

Starting July 1, Oklahoma high school athletes will not be allowed to follow their coaches to different schools.

The OSSAA polled member schools on this so-called “linked rule,” and it passed, according to the OSSAA. The association has not released the survey numbers.

Under the linked rule, a high school athlete is not allowed to move schools to play for a coach who has coached this student in high school or club sports during the past year.

The linked rule isn’t limited to transfers. It also trumps a bona-fide move, so a student cannot move into a new school district to play for a coach who has coached that student during the past year.

“Like all of our rules, we think that if there’s a violation, let the membership police themselves,” said David Jackson, the OSSAA’s executive director. “We’ll know about it, and we’ll investigate it like we do all our rules, and we’ll enforce it on a consistent basis.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OSSAA board meets to decide what's next for football districts