TRANSFERRING IN MINNESOTA | This is part of an exclusive Strib Varsity series.

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The Minnesota State High School League’s transfer rules take up six small-print pages in the league’s handbook, under Bylaw 111.00.

MSHSL senior associate director Bob Madison, who oversees transfers and eligibility, works closely with the athletic directors at each school to help interpret these rules correctly.

“What I never want to happen is for a family to make a decision, not fully informed,” Madison said. “... and they’re ineligible.”

Transfer rules, and whether schools and families are following them, are fodder for daily debates across Minnesota. Strib Varsity is publishing this FAQ-style article to help Minnesota families understand the rules, bust some myths and bring clarity to an often-misunderstood topic.

What is the MSHSL transfer rule, in a nutshell?

The intent of the league’s transfer rule is to prevent families and students from changing schools for reasons based solely on athletics. So, the starting point is: A student transferring from one Minnesota high school to another is not varsity-eligible for 12 months.

MSHSL executive director Erich Martens says, “The assumption is at the time that someone transfers, they’re going to be varsity-ineligible for a year unless they’re able to demonstrate and provide the information that says … they should be eligible.”

The league’s philosophy is summed up on Page 31 of the Handbook: “Member schools have determined that student movement from school to school should be restricted. To accomplish this goal, the league adopted Bylaw 111 to restrict student movement between schools to prevent athletic transfers … unless they meet one of the provisions … or are granted varsity eligibility" through an extended process."

How can a transfer student attain immediate eligibility?

There are five provisions that make a student eligible immediately:

1.) The family moves to Minnesota from out of state.

2.) The student is enrolling in ninth grade for the first time.

3.) The family has a residence change.

4.) There is a court-ordered residence change for child protection.

5.) If parents divorce or separate, students can transfer and retain eligibility once during grades 9-12.

If none of those provisions apply, the student enters the review process having been deemed ineligible for varsity for one year. But they can appeal. Read a detailed explainer of that process for reviews and appeals here.

What tends to anger people?

As Madison said: “Every time a student-athlete comes into a new school, they’re probably taking the place of someone that’s already there on a team, right? And that’s a real concern, I think, for our families.”

To what lengths will people go to prove something is amiss?

MSHSL vice president Keith Cornell said: “People have put up trail cameras so they can watch people’s houses [to see who actually lives there].”

How many transfers are there per year?

These days, the MSHSL fields about 2,000 transfer and eligibility requests per school year.

Most transfer requests are granted, with the sending and receiving schools working together in the transfer portal, and MSHSL staff members making sure all the documentation is in place.

Other requests wind up incomplete if, for example, the student decides not to go out for a sport or doesn’t enroll at the new school. The MSHSL doesn’t keep data on every individual case, just the ones that are initially denied and requests to enter the league’s review process.

“Due to the number of students that are in this group and the many transfers that are incomplete, we do not maintain statistics for these students,” Martens said.

In the 2024-25 school year, the MSHSL had 1,933 students submit Transfer Eligibility Determination requests. Of those that weren’t initially approved, 141 students signed up for a review.

Of those 141 reviews, 49 were granted eligibility and 92 were denied.

Of those denied, 23 asked for their case to be reviewed by the MSHSL’s Eligibility Committee, with 14 of those being granted and nine being denied.

And of those nine, four appealed before the league’s Executive Committee, with one granted eligibility and three denied.

It’s a robust review process for the small percentage of Minnesota high school athletes — fewer than 1% — who transfer and seek immediate eligibility.

Champlin Park activities director Matt Matson said: “In my 20 years, maybe I’d put the over/under at 10 varsity-caliber athletes who have moved out, and probably 10 varsity — you know, good players — that have moved in. So maybe once every two years.”

Who has the most responsibility during the transfer process?

Much of it falls on the athletic director whose school is receiving the transfer student. The MSHSL labels these ADs the “receiving AD,” as opposed to the “sending AD.”

The receiving AD places information into the transfer portal, and the receiving AD also must verify the submitted information if there has been a change of residence, for example, or if the parents have separated or divorced. The sending AD comes in later in the process.

It’s a lot to handle in a job that has high turnover each year.

“I’ve seen mistakes made very innocently,” Cornell said.

How is ‘residence’ defined by the MSHSL?

For eligibility purposes, a student’s residence is his or her real address and must include occupancy by his or her parents or guardians. The parents must physically reside at the residence on a regular basis. The MSHSL looks for one of these six pieces of evidence:

1.) A new mailing address for the parents or guardians.

2.) Voting registration of parents or guardians coinciding with the new residence.

3.) Driver’s license registration coinciding with the new residence.

4.) Purchase or rental agreements.

5.) Homestead classification.

6.) Any reliable evidence of residency.

Wait, there’s a portal for high school, too?

Yes, but not the free agency-like portal you hear about in college sports.

“We had the transfer portal before the NCAA,” Madison said. “Our transfer portal is a management system for our schools to talk to each other to ensure the transfer is happening correctly” with the pertinent documents being shared between the schools.

Does the MSHSL review and rule on every single transfer?

Yes. When the sending and receiving schools are both in agreement, and all the documentation checks out, the MSHSL staff will process that one as completed. Many pass through without a hitch, confirmed in the transfer portal, but some are reviewed and disputed.

Are transfers affecting greater Minnesota schools?

Cornell, who is also activities director at St. Michael-Albertville, hears the transfer rule critiques.

“I grew up in central Minnesota,” he said. “Some people think, ‘In the metro, everyone can do whatever they want.’ Well, there’s a lot of transfers happening outstate as well. I mean, it’s a state-wide phenomenon.”

Would the MSHSL consider a one-time free transfer rule?

This is a growing trend in high school sports, with state athletic associations in Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina and Washington adopting or taking steps toward a one-time free transfer rule.

In an online video last spring, Dr. Karissa Niehoff, CEO of the NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations), expressed her concern.

“Due to legislative mandates and undue external pressure, ten member state associations are now allowing at least one transfer from school to school with immediate eligibility, and legislation is pending in at least four other states,” Niehoff said. “While states have enacted changes to transfer policies, this is not necessarily the choice of the member schools in those states.”

Andover activities director Eric Lehtola said, “I personally would like to see [a one-time free transfer rule]. Then you can get a lot of this stuff out of the way, where people are lying, or using a grandma’s address or who knows what.”

But Madison said, “I hear very little conversations coming out of our meetings on a one-time, free transfer.”

How about a free return rule?

Madison said he’s hearing more on this front. Edina AD Troy Stein said he deals with the following scenario about twice per year:

“A family grows up in their community, and they choose to go to a private school, and they want to come back to their resident public school,” Stein said. “And when they reside in the district, there’s no option because they can’t move — they already live there.” Those students lose a year of eligibility.

Any changes to the transfer rules this year?

At its Feb. 5 board meeting, the MSHSL discussed proposed changes that would come down harder on opposing coaches and boosters who recruit potential transfers with tuition assistance, job offers, cash or gift incentives.

“There’s concern out there with the proliferation of club and AAU [teams],” Madison said. “I would say soccer and basketball — probably more often than not, I hear about it. We need to keep an eye on that.”

The board also decided that eligibility for online students intending to transfer would be decided using the same Bylaw 111, which covers all transfers.

What penalties can the MSHSL impose for mishandled transfer situations?

The MSHSL Eligibility Committee handles bylaw violations and determines consequences. An ineligible student, for example, who participates in any league sport is disqualified for nine additional weeks beyond his or her period of ineligibility.

The league’s handbook says the MSHSL may “penalize the school official or school officials responsible for an error under powers granted in the League Constitution … if the Board judges the error by school officials to be deliberate, intentional or sufficiently careless to warrant such special action.”

What if a student-athlete transfers to follow a coach?

The MSHSL has no specific bylaw for this situation.

“I think that a transfer is going to be reviewed under all the same criteria as any other transfer,” Martens said. “There might be more scrutiny or questions that might be asked by the outside, but in the end, we’re going to look at all the information … to make a determination.”

Does a student have to sit out a year when transferring public to private (or vice versa)?

Yes, when a student transfers from a public to a private school – or vice versa – the student still needs to sit out a year, unless he or she meets one of the five provisions listed above.

“Right now, you just have to change attendance areas and meet one of the five provisions [see above], and you can go to any private school you want,” Madison said. “Whereas, if you’re going to go from any other school – public school to public school – you have to live in that [new] resident attendance area.

“So that is something that has been questioned, deliberated, proposed, failed. It hasn’t changed.”

Madison noted that “it’s easier to move in from out of state and become eligible than it is from school to school within the state. I challenge that all the time.”

What’s changed culturally on the transfer front?

Mattson, the Champlin Park AD, said: “With the NCAA and everyone jumping into the [college] portal nowadays, I think it’s bringing a lot of attention to high school athletics, too. That doesn’t help us. Families start to see: ‘Oh, I just saw that Koi [Perich] transferred from the Gophers to Oregon. Maybe my kid can go play, you know, at Minnetonka, at Rogers, at Champlin.’”

Does some of this upset the ADs, too?

“We know that there’s frustration out there because we are frustrated as well,” Monticello AD Gary Revenig said. “We see someone who leaves to go play with somebody from their AAU team to make their basketball team better, and it just doesn’t feel right because that’s not what high school sports are about.”

How does transferring during a season work?

A student can compete for two different schools in the same sport season. For that to happen, the student would need to meet one of the provisions mentioned in more detail above.

The transfer student is ineligible for varsity competition at the receiving school for a 15-day period starting when the student attends his or her first practice or class at the receiving school. (If the student chooses to return to the “sending school” during that 15-day window, the student retains varsity eligibility.) If the student remains at the receiving school, and the 15-day window passes, he or she will be varsity-eligible only if the MSHSL and the receiving school approve his or her case.

Also noteworthy here: A transfer student who does not have immediate eligibility can become eligible one calendar year from his or her first day of attendance at the new school. In this scenario, a student who arrived at a new school on May 1 of this year would be eligible on May 2, 2027.

What is the MSHSL’s Eligibility Committee? And what does it do?

This committee deals with all MSHSL eligibility issues, not just transfers. It has six board members and three MSHSL staff members, and the league’s legal counsel attends the eligibility appeals as well.

When a student’s request to transfer and remain eligible isn’t granted, the family can ask for a Transfer Eligibility Review.

“Everyone has a heartwarming and emotional story, or they wouldn’t be at that point, so it’s hard,” said Revenig, the Monticello AD. “You have to try to look at the rules. How can we make it fit? But you also have to use common sense. As a committee member, does this pass the smell test?”

What policy exceptions can lead to an Eligibility Review?

The list includes adoption, abandonment or death of a parent. A substantial loss of income for a parent. Bullying or harassment from a student. Completion of a chemical dependency treatment or diagnosed mental health disorder.

What is a trend to watch?

The number of students transferring and staying eligible because their parents have divorced or separated.

“That’s something we’re hearing from our schools, and we’ll continue to look at it,” Madison said. “I think you’ll hear more conversation around that at the board level in the future as well.”

Where can I find more details?

The MSHSL Handbook contains all of the league’s transfer rules and policies.

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Transferring in Minnesota

This story is part of a Strib Varsity exclusive series focused on student-athletes transferring high schools in Minnesota.