Justin Jones tried to keep count of the phone calls he received from concerned high school football coaches in the 24 hours following the decision.
He estimated 65. The Norman North coach serves as the Oklahoma Football Coaches Association’s executive director, so when a change pops up, members look to him for guidance.
This time, he doesn’t have all the answers. No one does.
An Oklahoma County District Court ruling on Tuesday barred the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association from enforcing its amendments to a rule focused on private schools, which means some will shift to different athletic classifications. The OFBCA has to redraw districts, so many coaches will need to alter their schedules only four months ahead of football season.
“It’s kind of a ripple effect when you look at this because those schedules have been printed,” Jones said. “Schedules are out. All those schedules are really going to have to come back and be torn up and thrown away.”
These dominoes fell after five Oklahoma City-area private high schools sued the OSSAA in December, claiming Rule 14 is unconstitutional. The OSSAA has defended the rule as a step toward competitive balance, elevating private schools to higher athletic classifications based on sustained postseason success rather than enrollment.
Controversy has festered around the rule since its 2011 inception with coaches often gravitating toward polarized sides. The private schools filing suit – Bishop McGuinness, Heritage Hall, Mount St. Mary, Crossings Christian and Oklahoma Christian School – aimed to eliminate Rule 14. Some public school coaches have advocated for a measure more extreme than Rule 14, suggesting private schools compete in their own postseason bracket.
After the court ruling, the private schools’ legal team at McAfee & Taft issued a statement: “We are pleased with the Court’s ruling but we also look forward to continue being members of the OSSAA and working together and productively with all member schools.”
Coaches across the state are having different conversations.
The court ruling essentially birthed a compromise that hasn’t placated many.
Instead, it created a new sense of urgency for public-school and private-school football coaches.
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Why are football districts changing?
Oklahoma County District Judge Richard Ogden determined Rule 14 remains, but he issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday halting the OSSAA from enforcing the amendments passed last summer.
The injunction, which takes effect July 1, prevents a private school from bumping higher than one classification above its average daily membership, or ADM. It also brings back the Class 5A cap, so a private school cannot advance to 6A.
With the amendments thrown out, the success factor also changes. Instead of finishing in the top four for two of the past three years, a private school needs only to finish in the top eight for two of the past three years to move up. This change is an outlier because unlike the other tweaks, it makes a private school more likely to elevate.
Together, all of these changes drastically alter the organization of football districts.
Mat McIntosh, the athletic director at Norman private school Community Christian, is one of many football coaches left with questions.
“Really, the biggest thing for me, although we’re not in the lawsuit, is just really what’s going to go on with football next (season),” McIntosh said. “Is there any change to our schedule that we’re going to have to be scrambling to have to do come May?”
The OSSAA has slated May as its target deadline for presenting new district plans to the Board of Directors. Assistant director Trinity Johnson, who presides over football, emailed coaches after the court ruling. He said the OSSAA will create a plan for the redistricting process and share the information with coaches following Wednesday's regularly scheduled board meeting.
Until then, coaches are speculating where their teams will end up.
More: Judge voids amendments to OSSAA's private school rule: What to know about Rule 14
How might teams move?
Darrell Hall and Brent Hodges sat at a table in Deer Creek’s Athletic Center and tried to imagine how their football schedules could change.
It was lunchtime after the Central Oklahoma Athletic Directors Association’s Wednesday meeting, and only one day after the court ruling, Rule 14 weighed on the minds of many.
Hall, Midwest City’s athletic director and football coach, realized the redistricting process might impact his team. Hodges, Newcastle’s athletic director, knew the same.
“I’m not gonna sweat it until I sweat it,” Hall said. “But I’d like a decision made by many and not a few.”
Hall said it’s natural for coaches to make decisions that favor their teams, so a larger group of decision-makers cuts down on bias.
This matters when the movement of a single team could rearrange the whole puzzle.
“We’re potentially talking about affecting, in some form or fashion, every single class of 11-man football,” Jones said. “From 6A-I all the way down to Class A.”
This unravels a process that required several days of work. Football coaches, who formed committees to create the original districts last summer, weighed a number of factors when grouping teams, from competitive balance to location.
Now, the process starts over.
Here’s an example of its complicated nature:
The original 2024-25 and 2025-26 football districts placed McGuinness in Class 6A-II based on the success factor. With the 5A cap returning, McGuinness likely drops back to 5A.
This shuffles District 6A-II-1 because a team will have to replace McGuinness. It also shakes up 5A because McGuinness will join a district, bumping a team out, and a 5A school will need to rise to 6A-II to keep district numbers the same.
Midwest City competes in 5A, so McGuinness’ movement is likely to disrupt the Bombers’ schedule. Hodges has a different reason to brace himself for a shakeup. Class 4A Newcastle was originally placed in a district with Heritage Hall, but the Chargers are set to bump to a lower classification after the court ruling.
“It could change a lot,” Hodges said.
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What are other ways the ruling affects schools?
Although Rule 14 centers on private schools, the court ruling also erased an amendment geared toward public schools.
Under the Rule 14 amendments, if a private school moved to a higher classification, then the public-school team with the smallest ADM and least success in that class would drop. This procedure restored numbers in a district while aiming to create equity for public-school teams that struggled to compete in higher classifications.
With the amendments erased, only ADM will determine which public school drops, throwing out the “least successful” criterion. This affects teams such as Putnam West. The Patriots were set to play in 5A this year because of the amendments, but they will likely be forced to return to 6A-II and start from scratch with district scheduling.
Although the ruling causes the most immediate disruption for football, it reaches numerous other sports.
Starting July 1, the OSSAA can no longer enforce the coupling provision, which applied to Class 5A-6A basketball, soccer, track and field and cross-country. If a private school had boys and girls teams in one of those sports, then only one team needed to meet the success factor for both to elevate. With this provision thrown out, boys and girls teams don’t have to advance together.
Additionally, the return of the one-class bump restriction and Class 5A cap significantly impact volleyball, a sport with several dominant private-school programs. Mount St. Mary, a school with an ADM of 362.17, spent the past season in 6A volleyball, but this can no longer happen.
Similarly, Community Christian will no longer be required to move up to 5A volleyball, and this change relieved McIntosh. Although the CCS athletic director was uninvolved with the suit, he voiced his support for the private schools that were.
He also offered a slice of realism.
“It’s almost a no-win situation for the OSSAA as an entity,” McIntosh said. “Because you’re not gonna get any type of unanimous feeling on what is equitable.”
Compromise is difficult with such a hot-button issue, but coaches will have to form a unified plan when they gather for the redistricting process. Jones said it will “be a burden” for many coaches to make the time to do this with spring sports in full swing, but it’s a necessity.
“We recognize the importance of it,” Jones said. “We recognize the critical nature. We knew this was a potential (scenario). We’re there, so we’re gonna have to work diligently to put together the best plan that we can so that everybody’s good to go for the 2024 football season.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Court ruling leaves football coaches scrambling to redraw districts
