State Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine) has issued a stern warning to the Alabama High School Athletic Association to quickly reverse its recent ruling to sideline student-athletes for using CHOOSE Act money, or else risk facing the full weight of the state legislature.
On Friday's episode of "Rightside Radio," Elliott said he was "agitated" with the AHSAA over its ruling, which directly contradicts state law.
"I think they are about to find out how the legislature feels about their opinion on this matter," he said. "...For some reason or another, they have interpreted their own rules to really somehow or another be above the law, and that's not going to work for the legislature. The CHOOSE Act has specific language in it that says nothing in this act shall impact a student's eligibility to play. Nothing, pretty absolute term, and I don't know what in the world they are thinking."
Elliott asked the opinion of the Legislative Services Agency, which responded with a memo supporting Elliott's position.
"The legislative intent that the availability of these educational options should not be foreclosed based on athletic considerations could not have been more clear," host Phil Williams stated, reading the agency's opinion. "And then it says, 'The law explicitly states, quote, nothing in the CHOOSE Act shall affect or change the athletic eligibility of student athletes governed by the AHSAA."
Elliott said the AHSAA should be embarrassed, and he encouraged schools to simply ignore the ruling.
"That's pretty embarrassing for that governing body, right? I mean, it says, you know, could not have been more clear. 'What are you missing here, guys?' is essentially what that memo is saying. And so I guess what I will say to athletic directors and superintendents around the entire state of Alabama is, pay no attention to these guys on this topic. Just ignore them. They don't know what they're talking about. Hopefully they will sit down and see the error of their ways, you know, based not only on my opinion or the cacophony of legislators who are pointing out the error of their ways, but maybe, you know, from a nice memo, you know, written by the Legislative Services Agency saying, guys, maybe you ought to go read the law before y'all start issuing edicts that are contrary to the statute passed by the legislature and signed into law by the governor."
Elliott said the best way for the AHSAA to fix this situation would be to rescind the ruling or have the legislator step in and do it for them.
"That's the most expeditious way for them to handle this. Listen, it's not ever easy to say, hey, we were wrong. I've had to do it a number of times in my life, and it's not fun. But usually when you realize you're wrong, the best thing you can do is go ahead and admit it and do so quickly so that you don't have the Alabama legislature, the executive branch, and every member organization going, oh my gosh, guys, what are we doing here? We're bad wrong… If you want the legislature all up in your business and the collateral damage that's likely to occur as a result of that, then go ahead and stick to your guns and see what happens."
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