Education, Law & Principles

Lawmaker: Time to dismantle OSSAA

August 15, 2025

Ray Carter

The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association’s recent decision to prevent four teenage boys from playing basketball for Glencoe High School because they transferred into the district, effectively undermining Oklahoma’s open transfer law, has one lawmaker urging his colleagues to dismantle the association and start anew.

“The OSSAA is structured in a way that is unfair to student athletes and families,” said state Rep. Ty Burns, R-Pawnee. “They make families jump through hoops and waste time and money just to keep overwhelming power and control in the hands of their board. When the board votes unanimously to protect the status quo, it proves they are protecting the establishment, not the kids.”

The OSSAA oversees athletics, fine arts and other extracurricular activities for more than 430 school districts statewide. Current policy requires certain student-athletes transferring outside their home district to wait one year before regaining eligibility.

However, Oklahoma law allows students to open transfer among public-school districts. Despite the law, however, the governing board of the OSSAA voted on Aug. 13 to prohibit four transfer students from playing basketball at Glencoe this year, alleging that Glencoe Coach Garrett Schubert effectively recruited the four youths.

Schubert and Glencoe officials deny wronging, as do the families of the four boys, and the OSSAA has produced no evidence of recruiting beyond the fact that Schubert has known the four boys for years.

The family of one of the transferring youths explicitly cited problems with staff abuse at his prior school district when explaining why he opted to transfer.

On Aug. 13, the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association’s Board of Directors voted 12–0 to uphold the association’s ruling that the four boys will be ineligible to play basketball at Glencoe for the 2025 season.

The boys’ families filed a lawsuit on Aug. 14. Their petition alleges that OSSAA’s purported reasons for denying the four boys’ eligibility shifted repeatedly over the course of the review process and declares that the OSSAA’s actions are “collusive, unreasonable, arbitrary and/or capricious.”

The OSSAA has declined comment on the lawsuit.

Notably, this is not the first time the OSSAA has been sued for denying student transfers the opportunity to play sports. In at least one major case, the OSSAA backed down when faced with a lawsuit.

Burns, a former public-school teacher and coach, attended the OSSAA board meeting on Aug. 13.

He previously led a legislative study that examined OSSAA policies in 2022. The study examined the association’s finances and governance, student eligibility rules for transfers and included testimony from parents and attorneys who raised concerns about hardship waivers and transparency.

Burns said the 12-member OSSAA board, composed mostly of school superintendents, operates with little accountability while controlling decisions that affect students statewide.

“It’s time to dismantle the OSSAA and build a new system that stands independently, not controlled by the hierarchy of superintendents,” Burns said.

In 2022, Burns authored House Bill 3968, which would have allowed students transferring during the summer to a school district outside their residence to remain eligible for sports, with exceptions for dependents of active military personnel.

Two other lawmakers—state Rep. Chris Kannaday, R-Oklahoma City, and state Sen. Avery Frix, R-Muskogee—have also called for lawmakers to crack down on the OSSAA. Gov. Kevin Stitt has publicly weighed in as well, condemning the OSSAA’s actions.

In 2007, the 10th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with a lower-court ruling that found the OSSAA is “a state actor” because of the “persuasive entwinement of public institutions and public officials in its composition and workings.” The court noted that OSSAA’s directors were all public-school employees, and that the state of Oklahoma authorized OSSAA to determine athletic eligibility and hold play-off games.

Burns said it is time that lawmakers forced the OSSAA to act in accordance with state law.

“We are 50th in the nation in education,” Burns said. “We should be empowering kids rather than sacrificing them. The only way forward is to abolish this broken system and replace it with one that puts students and families first.”