Gov. Christie pocket vetoes NJSIAA co-op bill

On his last full day in office, Gov. Chris Christie pocket vetoed the bill that would have permitted public high schools in the same district who are unable to field varsity teams individually to enter into cooperative sports programs.

Christie placed companion bills A5254/S3447 on an “action not taken” list Monday. If he does not sign it by noon on Tuesday, the legislation will need to be introduced after incoming Gov. Phil Murphy is sworn into office Tuesday.

Introduced by state Sen. Shirley Turner and state Assemblyman Daniel Benson, the legislation is intended to create safer environments and equal opportunity for athletes in sports programs facing declining participation and budget constraints.

Last week, the bill received enough votes in the Senate and the Assembly to pass. If Christie signed it into law, the legislation would have taken effect for the start of the 2018-19 academic year.

West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District Superintendent David Aderhold, a backer of the bill, tweeted on Monday, “If the @njsiaa thinks we’re going to stop fighting for a change they’ve got another thing coming.”

West Windsor-Plainsboro North suspended its varsity football program this fall because of dangerously low player numbers. At the time, North was unable to merge with WW-P South because of an NJSIAA bylaw.

In December, member schools voted 179-115 in favor of a proposal to allow larger schools to form co-op programs in football under specific conditions. Among the stipulations are the forgoing of any divisional championship and/or state tournament competition, as well as review from the NJSIAA of the co-op arrangement every two years.

The legislative bill, on the other hand, would remove all NJSIAA stipulations and oversight for football and also allow any programs within the same district to merge. Under current NJSIAA rules, basketball, baseball, softball and outdoor track programs cannot merge.

Opponents of the bill, such as state Sen. Paul Sarlo, have argued that its legislation would foster the creation of superteams in certain districts.

Last week, Sarlo tweeted, “I am leading charge to defeat S3447, which would create havoc for public high school athletic programs in NJ...we don’t need public all star teams, we already have the parochial schools recruiting.”