The CIF Southern Section has ruled five Long Beach Poly football transfers ineligible, extending a wave of transfer denials that has already impacted Millikan and Compton this season. With this decision, Poly becomes the third Moore League school facing sanctions, and the affected athletes are barred from competing in California high school sports for the next two years.
The five transfers were initially approved via the “Sit-Out Period” before being changed to “under review” and have now been “denied” on the CIF Transfer Portal site.
Millikan lost eight players to the same ruling and had to vacate two victories, while Compton saw one athlete declared ineligible but avoided forfeits because that player never took the field.
Long Beach Poly administration has been contacted for comment on the ruling.
Like the Millikan and Compton cases, the Poly denials stem from CIF-SS Bylaw 202, which punishes the use of falsified documents.
At a recent CIF-SS council meeting Commissioner Mike West said “We had a real influx of fraudulent paperwork. It’s been significant and very disheartening” according to the LA Times. West also mentioned that the CIF office has become “very adept at identifying” fraudulent transfer information.
When asked about what methods the CIF office is using, assistant commissioner Thom Simmon said in an email, “I would not want to get into specifics on that information. I will simply say that we are using all means necessary.”
While the Moore League has had three schools impacted – there have been more than 30 schools across the CIF Southern Section that have had at least one athlete “under review” or “denied” on the transfer portal site.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
