Vince Fleming, Unsplash
By a 29-4 vote, high school athletic directors in South Carolina passed a rule that enables athletes to transfer to another school once during their prep careers with no penalty, as long as the transfer occurs on or before the start of practice for the sport in question.
As reported by the Greenville News, the rule was approved Wednesday at the South Carolina Athletic Administrators Association convention in Charleston and will apply to the 2025-26 academic year.
According to Kamryn Jackson of the News, key components of the new rule include:
- Students who transfer after the start-of-practice date are ineligible for either 30 days or half the games for the specified sport — whichever is fewer in number.
- Eighth-graders can utilize the one-time rule, as long as it’s before the start of their sport's practice.
- If a student transfers more than once, a student will be ineligible for 30 days or half of the total number of games — whichever is fewer in number.
- Starting in the 2026-27 season, high school seniors will have a 22-day period of ineligibility after transferring.
As reported by Jackson, the rule comes after South Carolina’s House of Representatives proposed Bill 4163, which calls to remove the South Carolina High School League.
