Rule number one according to Chuck Schmidt, Chief Operations Officer of the AIA, is "Athletic motivation is the key to any eligibility transfer. If a kid transfers for any athletic reason then that would deem that student/athlete ineligible."

Rule number two, always see rule number one.

Clearly, understand the message Schmidt is sending. You can move from a house in Maricopa to the Mountains of Arizona, which would meet the change of domicile standard, but if the move was made because of athletic reasons then the athlete should plan on sitting out a year. You can follow the rules, but if your intent has anything to do with athletics then don't plan on playing.

What drives some people crazy is that year after year the best programs benefit from multiple transfers who seem to clearly be transferring for athletic reasons. There are open message board conversations about top schools and what in-state transfers are coming their way. Top football powerhouses; Hamilton, Chaparral, Chandler and Centennial are not just getting one or two quality football transfers a year, but some are getting many more. Basketball powers like Brophy, St. Mary's and Westwind seem to do the same every year also. How does this happen?

A good way to think about hardships (factors that grant eligibility immediately after a transfer so an athlete does not have to sit out a year) is that there are change of domicile hardships, and then everything else.

The easiest way for an athlete to become eligible immediately is to have his/her family move from one location to another location. If the family legitimately moves then in almost every case the transfer is granted. It's widely known in Arizona that if you don't like your athletic situation, then move into the district of the school you want attend. The receiving school, who is the one who should investigate the transfer vigorously, will likely accept you without asking any questions and the AIA will never have a reason to get involved.

But what about all the games fans hear parents playing? Schmidt says, "If there's a change of domicile, then under the AIA bylaws that will allow the student to be eligible, but they have to abandon the prior domicile. That's where we start to hear the rumors of, well, they just rented an apartment, they did this, they did that. Again, that's up to the receiving school to investigate."

And here in lies the problem. The receiving school is the school that investigates these issues. The athletic directors may or may not investigate if the family has actually moved, but what they won't examine in 90% of the cases is the reason. It's in their best interest not to look too hard because they are set to receive a talented athlete.

Why ask why?

Schmidt would disagree. "There have been numerous cases where kids have been declared ineligible, they're just never covered. They were declared ineligible because there wasn't a true change in domicile. There wasn't a hardship. And those kids have not had athletic eligibility for that year," says Schmidt.

While Schmidt is correct and there are student athletes who's domicile transfers are routinely rejected, most fans and coaches know that kids and their families move because of athletics on a regular basis, and the AIA under the current structure seems powerless. The AIA recently ruled eligible a transfer from a smaller school to a larger state championship school even after the parent told anyone who would listen that he was moving because he did not like the current coach, and to increase his son's ability to land a full ride scholarship. The parent legitimately moved but he was not shy about the reasons. The receiving school accepted the transfer and the AIA didn't bat an eye. This is the murky water that fans and coaches find hard to navigate and the AIA finds very hard to legislate.

Rules are even harder on kids in private schools. When it comes to an athlete who is attending a private school they have to move out of the county they currently play in to be immediately eligible in the state of Arizona. If the same athlete is exiting a public school they must move outside the current school zone and into to the intended zone of the public school that the athlete intends to play in. It can get even more complicated if the new school zone has open enrollment rules that kick in upon gaining residence and the athlete wants to petition to play at a different school inside that school district's boundaries.

The internet message boards are also full of misperceptions. Some parents and fans think that you have to move 25 miles away from your current residence to be eligible. The physical distance that an athlete moves is not a relevant factor in determining eligibility. Some parents think once a kid turns 18 he can move anywhere he wants without his parents and he becomes eligible. That is not correct. Others parents believe that one can easily give up legal guardianship if the athlete is under 18 to another relative who lives in a school district that the kid wants to play in and that will allow the kid to become eligible. Not so fast. The AIA will investigate that one closely to gauge motivation.

If the AIA does get involved in investigating a domicile transfer they look at factors like the length of the new lease, the fact that the house that is being sold is priced to sell, and a variety of other factors play that into the eligibility issue.

The AIA is also constantly tweaking the rules to make it harder for non-legitimate domicile transfers to occur. "The rules changed this past year. Over the past couple of years athletes were going to a public school or a private school and then moving out of the county for a number of days and then coming back. That has now been changed. The student now has to be out of their prior county and at another school for at least one year before the student would be eligible in that prior county," says Schmidt.

Those rules are also strengthened some by the ability that the AIA can now assign a third party investigator to investigate potential problems, even if both schools agree to a transfer. The AIA is faced with one of the toughest tasks in athletics; trying to gauge the motives of teenage kids and those parents who want the best for their kids at all costs. Toss in the motivations of coaches, athletic directors, parents, boosters and administrators and mix in an outdated "self reporting system" that member schools mandate and the AIA is faced with an impossible task.

In part four of this series we will examine the role of other types of hardships and how they play in the movement of athletes from one school to another.