INDIANAPOLIS, IN (InvestigateTV) – High school athletic associations are the gatekeepers of high school rules for interscholastic sports across America and are used to enforce uniform guidelines from transfers to eligibility.
However, our national investigative team’s months-long investigation into these associations shows they often wield unfettered power and serve as judge, jury and investigator, often leaving students and schools few options to dispute decisions that are made.
In Alabama, a high school was forced to forfeit five wins and lost a spot in the playoffs last year due to violations involving transfers.
In West Virginia, multiple coaches were sidelined over alleged recruiting violations.
In Illinois, a high school was put on probation and forced to forfeit a varsity football win after an “oversight” from the athletic director and was placed on probation for the 2024-2025 school year.
Beginning in middle school, boys and girls who play sports are subject to the rules and regulations of state high school athletic associations, which can sanction students and schools.
Even before stepping foot onto a high school field or court, these associations can strip eligibility for any number of violations, including for recruiting and school transfers.
State high school athletic associations – like the NCAA – are voluntary membership groups and are either set up as nonprofit organizations or private entities. In many instances, when a decision is made by one of these associations, the only recourse for a challenge is to file a lawsuit.
The National Federation of High School Associations or NFHS is based in Indianapolis, Indiana and helps provide guidance for state associations to follow.
“Our primary activity is to write rules for 18 interscholastic sports but also provide about 65 different year-round committees that help to write rules, to provide guidance for the membership, guidance for the NFHS (National Federation of High School Associations) and engage the membership voice in what we do in the arts and activities,” Dr. Karissa Niehoff, CEO of the NFHS, said.
Niehoff said the rules that are written are developed through a complex process that can be a year-round endeavor.
“We ask membership to give us their feedback on current rules, submit rules, proposals, suggestions, through the state associations, those things come to our committees that operate on a year-round basis,” Niehoff said. “The committees work with our Sports Met Advisory Committee, looking at risk minimization, equipment safety and the like, and most importantly, protecting the integrity of the sport so that it’s not sort of an arbitrary and capricious decision.”
Some schools that were targeted by rules that were enforced by high school athletic associations believe the decisions are arbitrary and capricious.
In New Orleans, Isidore Newman, a prestigious private school that is proud of its winning basketball team was forced to forfeit wins after the Louisiana High School Athletic Association dropped the hammer days before Christmas 2023. Their coach, Randy Livingston, was suspended from coaching for one year, and their championship wins were revoked. The LHSAA alleged that there were recruiting violations, but the specific allegation that led to the harsh discipline was not provided to the school or the coach when the decision was rendered, according to their attorneys.
Livingston’s lawyers, Gibby Andry and Adam Johnson recall the coach and the school getting absolutely no details from the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and no due process about what led to the harsh penalties.
“What a Christmas present, “ Andry said. “Worse than that, he was told, ‘You can’t coach the rest of the year despite the fact that your son is on your team. Oh, and by the way kids, every game that y’all were part of for the last three years, well or longer than that, but at least two championships before … they’re all losses.”
Andry and Johnson immediately filed a lawsuit. Within a month of the decision being made by the LHSAA, a judge issued a temporary ruling ordering Newman’s wins be restored – along with Livingston as coach – while the court case continues.
“This is what happens when you have no oversight at all,” Johnson said. “You get constitutional violations. You get just acting without any concern for any consequence.”
Our national investigative team looked at bylaws for high school athletic associations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and found decisions in many states are steeped in secrecy with scant due process.
In nearly half of the states, the associations view playing high school sports as a privilege and not a right. That allows these high school associations to stick to rigid rules that must be followed – or players can be sidelined or benched for a few games or an entire season.
In more than half of the states we reviewed, the words ‘due process’ are not even mentioned in the bylaws– forcing players and schools to hire lawyers when decisions are made that impact playing time.
It’s such a problem that at least one state clawed back some of the power the high school athletic association possesses.
In North Carolina, the state took accountability into their own hands. Lawmakers created a state board that has the final say when it comes to athletic-related decisions in that state.
State Senator Vickie Sawyer, (R-Raleigh) helped push for an overhaul a few years ago. She told InvestigateTV that following the law change in 2021, there is now oversight over the High School Athletic Association’s appeals process. Prior to that, Sawyer said the association operated as an unelected third-party business and was not subject to open meetings laws. Everything was done behind closed doors.
Now, when there is an appeal in North Carolina – Sawyer said it can be appealed to the State Board of Education. They can decide on what happens, and since the law change, Sawyer said the board has sided with the High School Athletic Association roughly 50% of the time – showing that half the time they found the state association’s decision was wrong.
When a high school student transfers for any reason, there are explicit rules that must be followed in all states with regard to the state’s high school athletic association’s bylaws.
InvestigateTV analyzed transfer rules across America. Our analysis revealed that in nearly half of the states in the country, transfer rules apply to all sports levels – whether that’s varsity or junior varsity. Those rules can force a student to sit out for the entire year of a transfer.
“We are seeing transfer rules are one of the biggest challenges right now to our states out there across the country,” Dr. Niehoff said.
Indiana at one time was looking at allowing high school students one free transfer. It’s a proposal met with concerns from a number of people in the high school sports world, including an Indiana high school baseball coach, Kevin Hannan.
He’s spent the better part of two decades coaching baseball for students in a rural portion of Northern Indiana.
“It’s an out-of-body experience where everything you’ve worked for that whole season with that group of kids, you can tell the moment it clicks, and that’s pretty cool,” Hannan said. “In fact, it’s bringing goosebumps to my arms right now.”
Hannan said despite the fun of coaching – there are many students who will try to chase a winning school and put academics aside. He is vehemently opposed to a child transferring schools if they are only interested in school shopping for winning teams.
“You’re changing your child’s dynamic because you don’t like the baseball coach at the school you’re at,” Hannan said. “I just think that’s a little, maybe, that’s a rash decision.”
“First and foremost, our kids are student-athletes, student first,” Niehoff said. “When transfers occur, and they’re not based on hardship reasons – and there are hard things that happen to kids – they need to move. They need to shift schools for various reasons. Sometimes it’s just a service that they require. Those things are different when transfers are driven for athletic purposes. We have now lost student-athlete identity, and it now becomes athlete.”
Just like the lack of due process – eligibility following a transfer is a heated issue that rests in the hands of the High School Athletic Association.
Back in Louisiana, when Isidore Newman’s case went before a judge in New Orleans, the director of the High School Athletic Association admitted that he did not follow the organization’s rules and decisions were made based on an investigation that had illegible notes, according to court transcripts.
In court, Director Eddie Bonine admitted to violating their own handbook by not giving Newman a chance to respond before decisions were made.
Attorney: You violated your own rules though, correct?
Eddie Bonine: Yes sir.
Attorney: The purported allegations, half of which cannot be read by the accused, cannot be read and understood?
Eddie Bonine: Yes sir.
Attorney Adam Johnson said those words printed in the court transcript are alarming.
“The fact that you are able to say that all of those things in a row, and that all of that is true and legible in a transcript is insane to me,” Johnson said.
“It’s a little fiefdom that they have where they have no oversight,” Andry said. “They do not check and balance themselves, so someone else has to.”
The Louisiana High School Athletic Association oversees nearly 400 schools in the state. Although many of those schools are public, the LHSAA is a non-profit and private organization that does not comply with public records requests. A records request we submitted for the salaries of the organization’s employees was denied.
“The LHSAA holds a charter with the Louisiana Secretary of State as a registered non-profit corporation. Likewise, the LHSAA, just as all other private organizations, filed Articles of Incorporation, an Initial Report and operates based upon internal ByLaws. The LHSAA functions entirely as a voluntary membership organization. No school, private or public, is compelled to belong to the LHSAA. It was not created by legislature or any state agency, but rather, was the long ago offspring of a group of principals who wanted to help manage athletics for their high school athletes,” Attorney Mark Boyer said in an email.
Eddie Bonine did not grant InvestigateTV’s request for an interview for this story. Our request was turned over to their lawyers, but we never heard back.
Coach Livingston’s case is currently pending. Over the past two weeks, parties have agreed to mediate which is a legal process outside of court for the parties to determine whether an agreement can be reached to resolve the litigation.
Even though the LHSAA Director admitted to violating their own rules in court, the organization has stood by its decision to move forward with its claims that Newman and Coach Livingston violated recruiting rules. That complaint was originally based on an anonymous tip.
Copyright 2025 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
