Hot Topic: Transfers In PA High School Sports
Tagged under: Coaches Corner, News
Matt Herring | January 25, 2024
After the PIAA’s two-year Competiton Formula cycle for football concluded with the State Championships at Cumblerland Valley in December the hot topic across the Commonwealth was which teams would be forced to play up in classification based on accruing enough success points on the field coupled with receiving three or more football transfers over the past two-year cycle.
The PIAA Competition Formula assigns points to teams based on their progress through the state playoffs. Four points are accrued for reaching the State Final, three points for reaching the state semifinals, two points for reaching the state quarterfinals and one point for reaching the first round of the state tournament. An accrual of six points or more over a two-year cycle (in addition to three or more transfers to the football program) triggers a forced move up in classification for a schools football program. Schools accrue points for the Competition Formula regardless of whether they win or lose in state tournament games.
Shortly after the PA Football Championships concluded the PIAA produced their list of football programs that had garnered the required six success points. The 13 PA football programs identified by the PIAA as having the required six success points over the past two-year cycle included 1A Steelton-High (8 success points), 2A Southern Columbia (8), 2A Westinghouse (8), 3A Belle Vernon (8), 3A Northwestern Lehigh (6), 3A Wyomissing (6), 4A Aliquippa (8), 4A Bishop McDevitt (7), 5A Imhotep Charter (8), 5A Cocalico (6), 6A St. Joseph’s Prep (8), 6A Harrisburg (7) and 6A North Allegheny (6). Of the 10 programs eligible to be moved up (excluding the three 6A teams playing in the highest possible class) seven of those programs will be playing in a higher classification over the next two year cycle. Only Southern Columbia, Westinghouse and Cocalico either did not have the required transfers or increased enrollment to be moved to a higher classification.
Click below for the most recent PIAA Football Success Points report to view how points are assigned and how teams accrued points over the past two seasons…scroll down on the PIAA page to select “Football Success Points”…
http://www.piaa.org/news/details.aspx?ID=3745
Click below for the most recent PIAA notes from the January 24 Competition Formula Appeals Meeting which sent Steelton-Highspire, Aliquippa and Wyomissing to higher classes on failed appeals…
It should be noted, based on school enrollment teams may also be moved to a lower or higher classification regardless of their accrued success points. The PIAA adjusts enrollment guidelines for classifications every two years as well on the same schedule as their Competition Formula examinations.
To keep the PIAA Competition Formula in perspective very few football programs in the Commonwealth accrue the necessary succcess points to be considered for a move higher in class. There are 555 football programs in the state of which only 13 accrued the necessary success points (2% of all programs). Take into acccount the transfers necessary to trigger a move higher coupled with the success points and just 1.6% of PA football programs were affected by the PIAA Competition Formula.
So, the question must be asked. If succcess on the field in addtion to three or more transfers over a two year cycle is the current measure of moving a team higher in class just how many student/athletes transfer in the course of a school year across the state? Dozens, hundreds, thousands?
For the purpose of this article, we took a look at the District 7 WPIAL meeting notes from July through November to understand how many student/athletes actually transfer to new schools in a single school year. We do not reference names of the student/athletes or sending/receiving schools in this analysis. Additionally, our scope includes all sports transfers in the WPIAL July – November so as to not target specific football programs (or other sports teams) affected by the Competition Formula. The purpose of presenting our research, rather, is to understand the volume of transfers that actually takes place across all sports over the course of a school season in WPIAL District 7. The WPIAL and their 120+ teams currently makes up roughly 22% of all PIAA football programs across the Commonwealth and is a suitable case study for the purpose of understanding the totality of transfers in PA.
In District 7 WPIAL over a five month period from July through November 118 total student/athletes applied for athletic eligibility at their new school of which 102 were approved without further consideration. A total of 10 student/athletes were approved to participate in the regular season but had post-season restrictions. A total of 6 student/athletes required further hearings to determine their eligibility to participate in athletics at their new school.
If we extrapolate the WPIAL data across the state roughly 600 student/athletes would apply for athletic eligibility at their new school in the same five month period. If you consider there are roughly 350,000 student/athletes in Pennsylvania (according to PIAA data) the transfer rate of just 600 student/athletes every five months is relatively minute and less than 1% of all student/athletes. Furthermore, breaking those 600 students down into their respective sports presents a trifling number of transfers for just football considering there are roughly 25,000 football players across the state.
Considering there are 555 PIAA member football programs of which just 13 accrued the required success points over a two-year cycle to be examined for a forced move up in classification it appears the transfer rate for student/athletes is relatively mundane across the Commonwealth even for football which is its most popular sport by participation figures.
Before the PIAA adopted the success formula they were inundated with calls to help stop or at least slow transfers to prevent recruiting. Is this a sign that the current transfer rule attached to the success formula is working as it afffects so few schools across the state? Could be. Or it could just be an anomaly. Time will tell.
Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews
