HOUSTON – July 9 was a seismic day in Texas High School Football.

In a span of two hours, two of the sport’s brightest stars – Texas Longhorns five-star cornerback commit John Meredith III (North Crowley) and Georgia Bulldogs quarterback commit Colton Nussmeier (Denton Ryan) – were ruled ineligible for varsity competition after the UIL State Executive Committee ruled that they transferred schools for athletic purposes. 

On Sunday afternoon at THSCA Coaching School, UIL Executive Director Dr. Jamey Harrison said two aspects of the cases were lost in the media firestorm that ensued.

For starters, the Meredith and Nussmeier decisions were by far the outliers.

“When you have a case or two that get some attention, people lose sight of the forest for the trees,” Harrison said. “They don’t realize that during the 2025-26 school year, around 17,000 to 18,000 students were new to a UIL high school and wanted to play sports. When you look at the number of students who were ruled by a lower committee to have changed schools for athletic reasons, who then appealed that decision to the state executive committee, less than 15 will be ineligible for varsity participation at the school they transferred to.”

Harrison said that while the system for processing transfers is imperfect because it’s a human-based process, the UIL believes it is working really well.

If an athlete moves schools, the coach of the school the athlete moved from has the option to check a box on a Previous Athletic Participation Form (PAPF) that says, in essence, ‘I believe this student transferred for athletic purposes.’ If that box is not checked, the student is immediately eligible. If the box is checked, the student’s case goes to a District Executive Committee (DEC) hearing where all the district coaches vote on whether or not that student should be eligible. Only if the district coaches rule that the student should be ineligible does the UIL get involved through a State Executive Committee hearing process that gives a final ruling. In other words, there are humans involved at every step.

Harrison also emphasized that players like Meredith and Nussmeier can still play varsity sports at their old schools, Euless Trinity and Flower Mound Marcus, respectively.

But some, like three-time state champion South Oak Cliff head coach Jason Todd, wonder why it even matters.

“Have a honest question what made choosing a school for athletic purposes so bad? And when did that start being a concern let me do my research…..” Todd posted on his X account.

Coaches like San Antonio Davenport’s JD Zimmerhanzel say that, anecdotally, they see this sentiment on the rise among high school kids. Prep students have always emulated their favorite college players’ game. Now, they’re emulating the Transfer Portal.

“The high school kids watch college players all the time, where it’s easy to go into the Portal and get NIL money and all that,” Zimmerhanzel said. “Every year, especially this past offseason, I’ve had so many emails from other players saying, ‘Hey, I’m looking to transfer, can I come and take a visit of your school?’ Or, ‘Can I come see what you guys have to offer?’”

Zimmerhanzel says he tells all these kids he cannot talk to them until they live in his school’s attendance zone.

While a UIL State Executive Committee rules on whether or not the student transferred for athletic purposes, UIL Director of Athletics Ray Zepeda clarified the UIL does not have a personal opinion on the matter. 

“Our rules are not made by any UIL staff members,” Zepeda said. “They’re made by our member schools, for our member schools. I’m reminded every date in the execution of my job that my personal opinion about those rules really doesn’t matter at all.”

Zepeda said if those rules are not serving member schools well, the correct thing to do is change them through official action in the legislative council process. Right now, students must meet two requirements to be eligible for varsity competition at a school they moved to. They must live in the school’s attendance zone, and they must not have transferred for athletic purposes.

But there are instances, like Nussmeier’s, where the student’s family buys or rents a house in the school’s attendance zone and is still ruled in eligible for having moved for athletic purposes. That is a discrepancy that Anna head coach Seth Parr says doesn’t sit right with him. As a father, he says, it’s his job to put his kids in the best situation possible. He doesn’t understand why kids can move houses for a better academic, theatre or band program, but not for athletics.  

“If a family decides to move residences for whatever reason, they shouldn’t have to explain why they’re moving,” Parr said. “It shouldn’t be up to coaches to tell them what reason they’re moving for. My daughter was good in theatre. If my school was incompetent in allowing her to reach her goals, and I wanted to move to make her situation better, I don’t see any problem with that. I don’t know what the difference is between athletics (compared to), fine arts, or any student.”

But others, like Cibolo Steele’s David Saenz, say transferring for athletic purposes would diminish the community pride in their teams. Coaches often point to the Florida, where students are allowed to transfer, as an example. The Florida High School Athletic Association reported 21,584 combined fans for the 1A-7A football games in 2025. The 12 state championship games in Texas drew a combined 191,815.

“I think what makes Texas high school football special is the community part of it,” Saenz said. “We get recruiters that come through here and they talk about these other states and how it’s the Wild West. A kid is at one school in the fall, at another school in the spring, then he’s at another school in the fall.”

Gilmer head coach Alan Metzel says an open Transfer Portal in high school football would hamper coaches’ abilities to develop young men. To him, sports prepare students for the real world by teaching them discipline and how to fight through adversity.

“To me, it undermines our ability as coaches to teach kids,” Metzel said. “If you’re not going to act right, you’re not going to play. If you’re not going to come to practice, you’re not going to do this. If you can just start jumping around all over the place, you never have that boundary to butt up against and go, ‘You know what? I’ve got to change the way I am.’ We all need that. I needed it in high school.”

It's unclear whether Meredith and Nussmeier will play varsity football at the schools they tried moving from in 2026. Even if they do not play a down of Texas high school football this season, they've already impacted the sport for their outstanding play as sophomores and juniors – and sparked debate as seniors.