According to a report by the New York Post on Saturday, over 70 high school basketball teams in New York City were forced to forfeit their first contests of the season due to a strict new rule implented by the state.
The Public School Athletic League (PSAL) forced 74 schools to forfeit games because of their official rosters not being posted by November 18th, the deadline to curb incidents involving age limits and academic eligibility with players.
The PSAL is currently working with the 700 teams in the league, regarding reinstating games. Coaches, per the report, can lose up to four hours of pay per forfeit, amounting to around $250.
Per the report, last year in New York a huge cheating scandal ran rampant throughout the PSAL, which led the to cancellation of the league’s top high school state championship game. The scandal brought upon reform across the board, but has led to the flurry of forfeits in the opening week of games because of the inability to have rosters up in a timely manner.
“Schools have a lot of moving pieces going on … an arbitrary deadline they [PSAL] decided on this year out of nowhere without any sort of leniency seems like it’s punishing the kids and not teaching anyone anything,” Urban Assembly Bronx Academy of Letters’ dean/athletic director David Garcia-Rosen said to Chalkbeat via a report.
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— Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @highschoolonsi
