Appeals denied for ineligible players on Briles’ prep team

PFLUGERVILLE, Texas (AP) — A committee representing the governing body of public high school sports in Texas has denied the appeals of two players declared ineligible on a football team led by former Baylor coach Art Briles.

A pair of 4-1 votes Tuesday upheld a decision earlier this month by a district executive committee that Brock and Cameron Nellor moved to Mount Vernon for athletic purposes in violation of University Interscholastic League rules.

Briles attended the UIL’s state executive committee hearing near Austin but didn’t speak. Mount Vernon Superintendent Jason McCullough spoke briefly to reporters, saying the school district was disappointed in the decision but respected it. McCullough and Briles didn’t take questions.

A district executive committee voted 6-0 on Oct. 6 to declare the players ineligible, reversing a 3-0 decision three weeks earlier that had cleared the Nellors to play. Because of the first ruling, Mount Vernon won’t have to forfeit the five games in which the two played.

Mount Vernon won all five of those games and is 6-1 with three games remaining in the regular season.

The 63-year-old Briles is in his first year at Mount Vernon after coaching in Italy. The former Stephenville High School coach was fired at Baylor in the wake of a sexual assault scandal in 2016.