The Kentucky High School Athletic Association Board of Control had its first meetings of the 2025-26 school year this week.

The big topic of discussion was a proposed change to Bylaw 6 that regulates transfer eligibility. The proposal would allow students to transfer without penalty (sitting out one calendar year) between their freshman and sophomore years.

The current bylaw allows students to transfer freely between their eighth-grade and freshman year, or if they have not participated in varsity while in high school.

If the Board of Control passed this bylaw change, the member schools would need to vote on final approval by two-thirds of the 289 schools.

Survey data was also presented on adding a shot clock for basketball and adding new sports. The survey shows that 60% of schools still oppose a shot clock. It also showed that a majority of schools are not interested in fielding a STUNT, Pickleball, and Girls Flag Football.

The KHSAA is also set to receive a proposal from the Lexington Legends about hosting the baseball state tournament again.

From the KHSAA:

The KHSAA Board of Control conducted its first regularly scheduled meeting of the 2025-26 academic year on Thursday and Friday in Louisville, approving a review of proposals to be considered at the 2025 Annual Meeting and preparing for discussions that will continue to serve and meet the member schools’ needs. 

A two-day series of meetings began with an orientation for new and returning Board members and then launched into the full Board work session on Thursday afternoon, followed by conducting the full Board Meeting on Friday. The Board and staff welcomed new Board members, Jeremy Roach of Princeton and Terry Yeast of Winchester. 

“The first meeting each year offers a great opportunity for our new board members to become familiar with the process of these meetings and with our staff members,” said Commissioner Julian Tackett. “The first meeting is always one of our longer ones as we try to set the tone for the coming year, get ready for what will be presented to our member schools in the annual meeting, as well as what our focus is for the meetings for the rest of the year.” 

This past school year, the triennial survey was sent to the schools, looking at 10 topics. Schools were polled about administrative questions, basketball shot clocks, as well as membership interest in STUNT, pickleball and girls’ flag football in the coming year. All three did receive a lot of interest as potential new championships in the future, but not for the 2025-26 school year. All three will be topics of a breakout session at the annual meeting. Among the consensus of the discussion on these topics:

• The Board tabled action on the shot clock until the September Board of Control meeting.
• The double first base will be implemented with the 2026-27 season per the NFHS rules change.
• Girls’ wrestling to continue using 12 weight classes; 
• Soccer will continue holding semifinals at a neutral site; and, 
• Swimming will use backstroke wedges in the postseason for 2025-26 at all state levels if all sites have them available. 

The Board continued its multi-year look at transfer rules – Bylaw 6 for domestic students and Bylaw 7 for exchange students. KHSAA staff presented a preliminary report of the first segment of its lengthy research on Bylaw 6 and the last three years of cases. That data shows 2,023 transfers. KHSAA will continue to research trends to get more information to the board in the coming meetings on both bylaws. 

After a favorable annual review by the Board, the contract of the Commissioner was once again extended for another year for a four-year term starting in 2025-26, as was the contract of the General Counsel. The Board also reviewed objectives for the 2025-26 school year in compliance with state regulations. 

Additionally, the Board reviewed reports and took the following action:

• Approved the membership application for all 2024-25 member schools, and the application for Community Christian (Independence), Newcomer Academy (Louisville), and M.H.G. Preparatory Academy (Louisville) to begin a candidacy period of at least two school years starting with 2025-26. 
• Approved proposed competition language for lacrosse regarding ties, unless it is necessary to have a result for district seeding or an advancement in a tournament.
• Approved proposed lacrosse postseason nomenclature adjustments to retitle the first round the district as opposed to region, and the next rounds to be titled region, which allows for flexibility with game scheduling around busy end-of-the-year times.
• Tabled a discussion of an alternative regional tournament format in order to gather more data;
• Approved the 2025-26 championship calendar with adjustments for:
• field hockey being played on Saturday (quarterfinals), Monday (semifinals) and Wednesday (championship); 
• Have the lacrosse semifinals and finals during the same week as the finals were conducted in 2025, with semifinals to be played Monday and Tuesday, with finals to be played Wednesday; 
• Adjusted boys’ volleyball over two days and mirror the girls’ competition; and
• Asked for more information from the staff for future conversations on tennis format, classified alignment with football, track and cross country, and diving options.