There is currently a bill sponsored by State Senator Kelli Stargel and State Representative Manny Diaz moving through the Legislature.  This bill would curb the power of the FHSAA and increase the accountability of that bureaucracy. I will cut and past the basic summary analysis but I encourage you go to the link at the bottom of the page and read the entire 14 page Staff Analysis and then make your own determination.  Kelli Stargel introduced a similar bill back in 2012 which we covered.  I’m sure that the number of alarmists coming out of the woodwork against this bill, and against any change at all, will be large.  But I know that there are many, many ways in which the FHSAA is not working for our sport.  From a single classification pitting privates against public schools to Roger Dearing dictating that our best teams are no longer allowed to play the MIAA’s best teams to our girls wearing neoprene headbands to prevent concussions, it is clear that our sport does not benefit from the current structure of the FHSAA.

SUMMARY ANALYSIS The bill increases the accountability of the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) by:  Providing that special event fees, sanctioning fees, and gate receipts annually collected by FHSAA must reflect its actual cost in performing the function that is the basis of the fee;  Repealing provisions requiring FHSAA to have a board of directors, representative assembly, committees on appeals, and public liaison advisory committee;  Requiring FHSAA to instead establish a 16 member governing board that proportionately represents public schools, schools of choice, private schools, home education, and parents of student athletes, as well as regions of the state. Any other policy-making bodies it establishes must be similarly constituted;  Requiring members of policy-making bodies to annually complete governance training;  Requiring FHSAA to provide for resolution of eligibility disputes through an informal conference procedure and neutral third party review;  Prohibiting a student from being declared ineligible until the neutral third party review is completed;  Requiring eligibility proceedings to be conducted in the county where the student resides;  Allowing member schools to participate in FHSAA on a per sport basis;  Requiring FHSAA to develop sportsmanship training which member schools must administer annually to coaches, administrators, and student athletes;  Requiring operational audits by the Auditor General every three years;  Requiring the Commissioner of Education, with approval of the State Board of Education, to designate a nonprofit association to regulate interscholastic athletics by July 1, 2017;  Removing statutory references to FHSAA, effective upon the commissioner’s designation of the nonprofit governing organization; and  Thereafter requiring the commissioner to review the designated association’s performance of duties in each year an operational audit is conducted, i.e., three-year intervals.

You can read the House of Representatives Staff Analysis here. I’ve already read an article in the Tampa Tribune that reads as if the FHSAA themselves had written and approved it claiming that the current set up is the only thing preventing Florida sports (Football) from becoming just like the NFL free agency.  In fact the words “Wild West” were even used. I don’t glean that from what I’ve read. The Education committee meets tomorrow morning from 9:00 am to 11:00 am and this bill is on the agenda.  If you have an opinion I suggest you make it know to members of this committee tonight.