Court hears NJSIAA transfer rule complaint filed by Nunzio Campanile. What's next?

The Bergen County Superior Court claimed jurisdiction over the legality of the NJSIAA’s senior transfer rule, and a second plaintiff has come forward to join the challenge.

In a 59-minute hearing on Wednesday afternoon, Bergen County Superior Court Judge Darren T. DiBiase told NJSIAA legal counsel Steve Goodell and attorney Patrick J. Jennings, who is representing both players, that he would hear an application to restrain the enforcement of the transfer rule and sit period mandated for seniors in a timely fashion, noting the proximity to the start of football season at the end of August.

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) is the governing body for high school sports in New Jersey.

The hearing, held on Zoom, was full of back-and-forth arguments between both attorneys on an array of topics. Jennings is representing the son of current Syracuse assistant football coach Nunzio Campanile, who is transferring from Bergen Catholic to Ramsey High School for his senior year, along with a player identified as "RD" now attending Don Bosco for his senior year after leaving Union High School.

DiBiase recommended both cases be "consolidated" into one.

The NJSIAA altered its transfer rule in May 2023, allowing for one ‘free’ transfer (meaning no sit period) for students who were freshmen, sophomores and juniors , but enforcing a sit period of approximately one-third of the season for seniors. This was done for many reasons, including to deter of the creation of so-called 'super teams.'

During Wednesday's hearing, both sides brought up several sticking points. Jennings said it was his experience that if the NJSIAA ruled one of the players ineligible after the fact, they could punish both schools for using an ineligible player. DiBiase asked Goodell if the NJSIAA could commit to not doing that, and Goodell promised to give an answer in the next 24 hours.

Jennings was insinuating that the NJSIAA could say the players were ineligible while playing, which would cost the teams victories and subsequent power points, making them ineligible for the state playoffs.

Goodell said the NJSIAA policy regarding appeals by public-school students and schools in matters like these are typically referred to the New Jersey Commissioner of Education. He repeatedly expressed that a matter this large − which would impact the entirety of the NJSIAA − should not be handled in a "quick and frivolous" manner.

Jennings responded that there was no appeal process allowed by the NJSIAA in a case like this and they were merely following the rules that they had established, but that his clients were finding fault with the very rule itself.

He made the analogy of an 18-year-old junior football player sitting with a 17-year-old senior football player in a school cafeteria and how the NJSIAA’s transfer rule would treat the senior differently than the junior, just because of their classification, if they both decided to transfer at the same time.

Jennings repeatedly asked for the certification, meaning reasoning for the policy from the NJSIAA.

The transfer rule was a much-debated topic before being ratified by a vote of the full membership last year.

“We don’t know if we have it perfect," NJSIAA chief compliance officer Paul Popadiuk said to NorthJersey.com last Marchwhen the new rule was being discussed. "We talked to other associations countrywide and no one is 100 percent happy. We really feel that we have something that is much better than what we had and what takes into account the modern-day interest of kids and families and also holds true to the educational component.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Court hears NJSIAA transfer rule complaint filed by Nunzio Campanile. What's next?