As reported here, the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) is again embroiled in controversy. As Ray Carter reports, the latest issue relates to four boys who would like to transfer to Glencoe Public Schools in order to play basketball with their longtime friend whose father also happens to be the coach. The OSSAA is denying the boys’ eligibility to play any sport for the entire school year under a rule that is supposedly designed to keep schools from recruiting players. 

For years, the OSSAA could brush off all of these concerns by claiming that it was a voluntary association—not a state actor. That all changed a little over 10 years ago in Christian Heritage Academy v. OSSAA. In that case, CHA had asked for membership in the OSSAA. In order for a private school to join, most of the member schools had to vote to approve—a requirement public schools didn’t need to meet. CHA challenged this rule under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Before reaching a decision on the Equal Protection Clause, the Tenth Circuit first had to decide if the OSSAA is a “state actor,” because the Fourteenth Amendment only restricts governmental action. The Tenth Circuit held that the OSSAA’s “persuasive entwinement of public institutions and public officials in its composition and workings” made it a state actor for purposes of CHA’s equal protection claim.

As a state actor, this also means that the OSSAA can’t enforce its rules arbitrarily and capriciously. In the wake of the Oklahoma Legislature passing open transfer, the Oklahoma Attorney General has argued that the OSSAA not only has a history of enforcing its rules arbitrarily and capriciously, but also that enforcement of the rule will necessarily lead to such results given its language. 

Much like the NCAA, which got so drunk on its own power that it accelerated its own downfall, the OSSAA may also be hastening its own demise. That could happen in courtrooms as more and more families get sick of the OSSAA frustrating Oklahoma law. Or, it could happen in the state Capitol building, where many lawmakers are fed up with the shenanigans. Either way, the OSSAA will have no one to blame but itself.