NCAA Rule Causes Texas High School Coaches Association To End All-Star Games

A long-standing tradition in the state of Texas is coming to an end, as the Texas High School Coaches Association announced Thursday it would no longer hold its annual all-star football and basketball games.

The THSCA's board of directors met in San Marcos earlier in the week, and decided it was in the organizations's best interest to permanently cancel the all-star events, which coincide with the THSCA's coaches convention each summer.

The THSCA all-star football game dates back to 1935.

In October of 2013, the NCAA implemented a bylaw that prohibits Division I college coaches from speaking at a convention that includes high school all-star games. The THSCA was then denied an exemption by the NCAA's Legislative Relief Waiver Committee in July of this year.

“This is not a decision we wanted to have to make at all," THSCA executive director D.W. Rutledge said in a press release. "We felt our convention and all-star games were not a violation of the NCAA rule and took extra steps to separate the two events as best we could, but the waiver committee felt otherwise. When faced with the burden of either excluding the college coaches from attending our convention or hosting the all-star games, the board felt it was in the best interest of the association and its members to eliminate the all-star games.”

The 2015 THSCA coaches convention is scheduled for July 19-22 from the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.