New York City Public School Athletic League imposed a new deadline for high schools to upload their rosters, but more than 70 teams missed the date resulting in dozens of forfeited games.
According to the New York Post, “The earlier deadline was implemented this season after a cheating scandal last year involving age limit and academic eligibility.”
In previous years, teams had until the week before the season began to upload rosters and enforcement was lax. This year, that deadline was moved up to Nov. 18 and strictly enforced. Because of the missed deadline, very few teams played on Thanksgiving week, instead, 74 teams will begin their season tonight.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School boys’ head coach, Glenn Thomas, said, “They have bigger fish to fry in the PSAL than coaches who got a roster up 24 hours late. The ones getting hurt most are our kids,” but Thomas continued, “I think it’s good they’re coming in and trying to get the PSAL in order.”
Some coaches foresee a problem with the new deadline as students need time to try out for the basketball team, submit medical records and pay the requisite fees required to join the team. All of that takes time, on top of coaches needing to make cuts or move players around to various Freshman, JV and varsity teams.
After several coaches complained to the PSAL about the rigidity of the new rule, the league is considering reinstating the first game of the season for several teams who filed within 24 hours of the new deadline.
“We are grateful to the vast majority of teams who uploaded their rosters by the deadline, and we are working with those who quickly remedied the missed deadline to reinstate their first game,” said Jenna Lyle, an education department spokesperson.
