GHSA knew of potential Locust Grove violations. This bylaw delayed action.

A similar scenario played out in 2024, when Appling County advanced to the Class 2A semifinals, then forfeited 10 victories in the offseason. The GHSA received an allegation of illegal recruiting four days before Appling County’s final regular-season game.

Requests to investigate player eligibility must come 20 days before the end of the regular season for penalties to be applied during that season, according to GHSA bylaw 2.37. The bylaw, passed in 2007, is designed to keep rival schools from withholding damaging information until it can inflict the most damage.

“The concern is that schools could hold onto things until right before the playoffs and then submit it,” GHSA executive director Tim Scott said Wednesday. “So the bylaw was created to prevent that. When somebody finds out that somebody might be doing something wrong, they need to report it at that time. When we receive something, we immediately investigate and start the process, and there still may be forfeitures, but we don’t asses that until after the playoffs.”

The cases of Locust Grove and Appling County are the most striking in the rule’s 19-year history. They also show the bylaw’s dangers. It is possible, Scott said, for a team to win a state championship, then vacate it over violations alleged in the 20-day window.

The GHSA did not know Locust Grove or Appling County were guilty before the playoffs. With no mandate to make an in-season ruling, the GHSA did not complete its investigations until the following years.

Teams using an ineligible player must forfeit all games in which the player participates. If a player is ruled ineligible in August, his participation to date is relatively harmless. If found ineligible in late October, a team’s season is likely ruined.

Late-season torpedoes may still find their targets — if they come just before 20 days.

In 2024, another school from Locust Grove’s region, Stockbridge, was forced to forfeit nine regular-season games.

Allegations of an ineligible Stockbridge player came before the 20-day window, and the GHSA assessed the penalty days before the playoffs, ending Stockbridge’s season and costing the team its region title. Coincidentally, Locust Grove made the playoffs as the fourth and final seed from the region because of the Stockbridge forfeits.

In 2023, Cook forfeited five games in October, dropping it from first place to last in the region standings, endangering its playoff hopes. A region rival alerted the GHSA to possible violations just before the 20-day deadline.

Cook filed a lawsuit and got a temporary restraining order to prevent enforcement of the forfeits, and the GHSA’s board of trustees elected to restore the victories. Cook advanced to the Class 2A semifinals as region champion.

The threat of lawsuits was another consideration in adopting the 20-day rule, according to the GHSA’s executive director in 2007, Ralph Swearngin. The rule would give the GHSA time to investigate and defend appeals and potential legal challenges before the playoffs.

This past season, the GHSA postponed the Class 5A playoffs after Gainesville got a restraining order to reinstate suspended players.

But Swearngin said the bylaw’s purpose was mainly what Scott said. Swearngin said it was a series of strategically timed allegations, not one big one, that prompted it.

“There were several times when school personnel knew another school was playing an ineligible player and they kept that info in their pocket until they needed it,” Swearngin said. “The offending schools claimed they would have resolved the problem earlier if they had known.”

Cook, Appling County, Locust Grove and Stockbridge had reason to believe their players were eligible when they used them. The GHSA must approve eligibility for all transfer players before they play a game. The ineligible players all got initial GHSA approval.

Appling continued to play its alleged ineligible player in the playoffs, presumably believing it would convince the GHSA there was no wrongdoing. Appling won an appeal for two other players that the GHSA originally declared ineligible from a late October allegation, but not the third.

In all four cases, the GHSA ruled the schools had violated bylaw 1.72, the GHSA’s follow-the-coach rule. A player who transfers to a new school is ineligible for one academic year if a coach at his new school coached him the previous year. This includes coaches at offseason clinics, camps or competitions.

The two ineligible Locust Grove players participated in 7-on-7 competitions with Locust Grove coaches before the 2025 season. A rival school alerted the GHSA of the potential violations, but after the deadline.