The Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association Wednesday voted to approve one free transfer for students across high school athletics. The measure adds an exception to Rule 8, which states a student must wait one year from the attendance at a new school before gaining athletic eligibility unless a hardship waiver is granted. The one free transfer means an eligible student can file the proper paperwork and change schools once without sitting out or moving into the new district, and with no hardship waiver necessary.

The OSSAA Board of Directors voted 12-1 to approve the move and set parameters for what the new rule means for Oklahoma high school student- athletes. The new free transfer rule will take effect July 1, 2024.

The deadline for student- athletes to enact their free transfer will be July 15 preceding each school year. A hardship waiver will be required for any transfers after that deadline. Studentathletes can not play for two different schools in the same season.

I have talked to four different coaches from four different schools about the rule and all of them had a negative response and thought it would hurt high school sports.

OSSAA president David Jackson said in an interview “This doesn’t create a portal in the same sense that the NCAA has a transfer portal. There are strict parameters around what the board passed today that will help our policy from being what happens at the higher level.”