Dusty Young knew the vote would be close, and that it could go either way. One way would loosen the New Mexico Activities Association’s decades-long high school transfer eligibility rule, and the other would maintain the status quo.
In the end, by a margin of 67-60, NMAA member schools voted to allow student-athletes a one-time transfer without penalty — replacing a previous bylaw that prohibited transfer students from participating on varsity sports teams for 365 days. Some exceptions apply to the revised bylaw and relate to existing regulations regarding home-schooled students, charter schools, recruiting and undue influence (such as a student-athlete following a coach to a different school).
“It’s such a huge change for us,” says Young, the state association’s executive director, adding that the NMAA receives about 600 eligibility petition requests each year. “It’s very different than what we’ve ever done here in New Mexico, but times are different now. There are a lot more variables involved when it comes to a student’s educational career. The days of ‘you play where you live’ are gone, because there are a lot of hardships that students and families are facing. This was about really looking at our bylaws and saying, ‘Do we need to look at societal trends and make some adjustments to keep up with the times?’ ”
According to Young, the change reflects NMAA members’ intent to provide students and families with greater flexibility while still maintaining the safeguards that protect the integrity of interscholastic activities. And, he admits, the bylaw could change again: “We’ll be evaluating what happens.”
The NMAA’s tight vote — and the new bylaw’s potential to remain fluid — is indicative of just how contentious the high school transfer eligibility debate has become nationwide in recent years.
“It’s an important issue for our state associations,” says Davis Whitfield, promoted to NFHS executive director this summer. “Obviously, they want to make sure that they are fair to every high school across their state. But when you start to create dynasties and imbalance and lopsided competition, does that dissuade other students from participating? We just want to make sure that fairness is there, and our state associations are the ones to make sure that happens.”
New transfer eligibility rules are in place for high school student-athletes from coast to coast this fall. Some are the result of recently enacted state laws (as in Florida and Tennessee), while others (as in New Mexico) are based on updated state association bylaws.
Regardless of how changes were enacted, state associations and their member schools must now navigate a shifting landscape shaped by a confluence of factors and driven in part by increased appeals for school choice and school vouchers, the commercialization of youth sports and the popularity of the NCAA’s transfer portal, allowing college athletes to transfer unlimited times without penalty.
“I say this with all due respect, but I don’t think people like the state of college athletics as we know it these days,” Whitfield says. “You see a lot of unrest at that level, and unless we keep this in check and maintain some control [over transfer eligibility issues], I think you could have a situation like what’s happening in the college ranks at the high school level. That’s probably not the best model — and it’s certainly not an education-based model.”
Legislative action
For the past four years, transfer eligibility rules have been debated both inside and outside the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. The Legislature took up the issue, initially with the intent to remove any restrictions — athletic or otherwise — for high school transfers. Such a move would have voided the bylaw established by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, which bars transferring student-athletes from participating in sports for one academic year.
That’s when the state association got involved, met with the bill’s sponsors and asked for time to allow member schools to weigh in on whether they wanted to eliminate transfer restrictions. They did not, which eventually generated interest in the creation of a one-time transfer rule.
“Over the next couple of years, we developed [a rule] that went into effect last year and allowed a student to transfer one time for an academic, social, emotional, mental health or environmental reason, provided that the other school’s administration verified that it was not for athletic or disciplinary reasons,” TSSAA executive director Mark Reeves says.
Fast-forward to February 2026, when governor Bill Lee signed a bill that essentially codified the bylaw that the state association had already adopted. It allows middle school and high school student-athletes in Tennessee to be immediately eligible for competition upon transferring schools one time. No questions asked. The lone stipulation? Transfers must take place during the summer, not in the middle of the academic year.
“Where we’ve landed is where the majority of our membership said they wanted to go,” Reeves says. “Has the discussion been driven faster than the membership would have wanted it to? Yeah, absolutely. I don’t think this discussion would have evolved or advanced as rapidly as it did without legislative pressure. The reality is that if we didn’t go to the table and at least have these conversations [with lawmakers], they were going to pass a law that we would not have control over.”
State association officials in New Mexico felt the same way. Young says the NMAA’s new bylaw provides greater flexibility than some of the previous bills state lawmakers introduced during three of the past five years — none of which made it out of committee. “If we are going to have more flexible eligibility rules, let’s make sure that it comes from the membership and not from the State Legislature — or the courts,” he adds.
While New Mexico isn’t necessarily an outlier in developing its own transfer eligibility rules, the need for the kind of engagement with state legislators required by TSSAA on this issue is becoming more common. In 2016, Florida lawmakers passed major school choice legislation that cleared the way for open enrollment and eliminated all athletics eligibility requirements for transfer students.
“The thought was that school choice would provide parents with the opportunity to have their kids receive a better education than at their previous school,” says Craig Damon, executive director of the Florida High School Athletic Association. “But as time went on, people started looking at school choice from an athletics standpoint, which was an unintended consequence of the legislation. When you think about kids changing schools in the middle of the school year, going from playing football at School A to basketball at School B to track and field at School C, that change of scenery, change of environment, change of culture — it had to impact kids negatively from an academic standpoint.”
That’s why the FHSAA tapped Florida state senator and former NFL Pro Bowler Corey Simon to sponsor a bill that reins in athletics transfer eligibility rules for high school student-athletes. That bill ultimately became law in May and limits transfers to one per year (with specific exceptions) and aims to balance school choice with academic integrity.
“It’s been very well received by our member schools, and it’s a step in the right direction,” Damon says. “We’re waiting to see what unintended consequences may come from this one, what loopholes somebody might expose. When those happen, we’ll work on fixing them. But right now, we’re just trying to make sure all our parents, our students and our schools are educated and understand what the new changes are.”
“What we have gone through in the last four years to get to where we are has been very challenging, but it’s been very healthy,” TSSAA’s Reeves adds. “We didn’t jump in the deep end just because the Legislature was shaking their fists. We engaged in meaningful collaboration with them to help them understand more about what our organization does, how we make decisions, how we evolve. And we developed some really healthy relationships there that will help us moving forward.”
The big picture
Among the concerns regarding the transfer eligibility debate is the potential for new arrivals to displace other student-athletes. In fact, the new NFHS position statement on eligibility rules enforcement, issued in May, claims that “state associations have eligibility and transfer rules in place that are designed for equitable and fair participation in interscholastic athletics and activity programs. … Their focus on safety, fairness, education and community impact ensures that high school sports and other activities remain a valuable and positive part of the educational experience.”
“We’ve got to think about fairness across the board and make sure that we’re providing opportunities for anyone who wants to participate,” Whitfield says. “What does that young person who was displaced do now? Do they quit? Do they drop out of sports? Do they go play another sport? I mean, there are a lot of different options, but certainly we don’t want to try to create more barriers to participate. We want to make those opportunities readily available.”
Damon doesn’t think the displacement discussion — and the transfer eligibility debate as a whole, for that matter — is quite as controversial as high school sports administrators might be making it out to be. Members of the FHSAA’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which meet with state association staff three times per year, have repeatedly said they are not bothered by the increasing presence of transfer students at their schools and on their teams.
“I’ve heard very few comments from actual students about kids being displaced. And kids don’t care about [the transfer eligibility issue], because most of them are used to playing travel ball, used to playing with kids that don’t even live in the area,” Damon says. “For them, it’s like no big deal. They embrace those kids who come in. So here we are, saying we’re trying to create a level playing field and trying to do what’s best for our kids, and it’s more about what we feel is best for us as adults. Maybe we’re looking at it from the wrong perspective. If student-athletes are okay with this, then we should be okay with it, too.”
If the mindset of Florida’s high school student-athletes reflects the national mood of young people, that might help ease the angst of athletics and activities leaders in other states who — if they haven’t already — might soon find the ongoing transfer eligibility issue requiring even more of their time and energy.
“I foresee versions of school choice popping up in more states,” Damon says. “We lived through it, we know what it looks like, and when the state law changed, we had to adjust and evolve to where we are now. If you make changes, do what you’re comfortable with without compromising the mission of your association. But allow some flexibility. It’s a whole lot harder to make adjustments to a state law than it is if you create your own bylaws.”
While there likely will never be a national rule on high school transfer eligibility, Whitfield emphasizes that the NFHS will continue to help state associations navigate the challenges they face — from support in working with state lawmakers to providing effective examples of what other states are doing.
For now, according to New Mexico’s Young, state associations must be open to change.
“I’m a firm believer in being able to adapt. It’s time for us to look at changing how things have been done,” he says. “But no matter what changes we make, we have to stay true to our mission of education-based athletics.”
