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The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA), along with the affiliated Tennessee Middle School Athletic Association (TMSAA), is an organization which administers junior and senior high school sporting events in
Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
. The TSSAA (commonly pronounced "Tee double-S double-A") is the only high school athletic organization in the United States to have a five-sport, Olympic-style spring sport championship tournament, known as ''Spring Fling'', for baseball, softball, track and field, team and individual tennis, and soccer. Spring Fling began in
Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...
in 1993, later moving to Memphis, and then establishing itself in
Murfreesboro Murfreesboro is a city in Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Its population was 165,430 according to the 2023 census estimate, up from 108,755 residents certified in 2010 United States census, 2010. Murfreesboro i ...
. The TSSAA was one of the first high school athletic organizations to host a central site for football championships, beginning in 1982.


Description

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association administers sporting events for an estimated 110,000 participants, 374 schools, 4,000 coaches, 3,000 officials, and 5,500
teams A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interd ...
in the
state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
of Tennessee. First organized in 1925, the TSSAA oversees athletic functions of both
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
and
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schools. It includes schools throughout the state of Tennessee. In 2001, the association was a party in the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
case '' Brentwood Academy v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association''.
Brentwood Academy Brentwood Academy is a coeducational Christian independent college preparatory school located in Brentwood, Tennessee, for grades 6–12. History The charter of Brentwood Academy was signed on November 20, 1969, after ten acres of land on Gra ...
had sued the Association after the school was penalized for "undue influence" in recruiting football players, and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court. The court in this case held that a statewide association, incorporated to regulate interscholastic athletic competition among public and private schools, is regarded as engaging in
state action In United States constitutional law, state action is an action by a person who is acting on behalf of a governmental body, and is therefore subject to limitations imposed on government by the United States Constitution, including the First, Fi ...
when it enforces a rule against a member school. The fall of 2009 was the first year for the TSSAA to divide into six playoff classifications for football. The new system allowed more teams into the playoffs. The state championship game for football, the ''BlueCross Bowl'', which is held three consecutive days, ending the first Saturday of December, and includes Division I classes 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A, as well as Div. II A and AA, was held at
Tennessee Tech University Tennessee Technological University (commonly referred to as Tennessee Tech) is a Public university, public research university in Cookeville, Tennessee. It was formerly known as Tennessee Polytechnic Institute, and before that as University of D ...
's
Tucker Stadium Tucker Stadium is a 16,500-seat multi-purpose stadium in Cookeville, Tennessee. It is home to the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles football team, and is named for former coach Wilburn Tucker. The football field is named Overall Field in honor of f ...
in Cookeville 2009 – 2020 and has been held in
Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...
since 2021.


Classification

Each school chooses to compete in Division I or Division II. Division I schools are schools which generally allow students to attend without payment of tuition, i.e., public schools, except that tuition may be charged to a student who is a resident of the county in which a school is located but outside of a city school district or special school district, in which case the tuition is the difference between the amount of additional funding per student provided by the city or special school district above that provided by the state and county. Division II schools are independent schools which charge tuition to students' families. Financial aid is allowed provided it is limited to a need-based amount, and that the percentage of athletes receiving aid is no greater than for the school's students as a whole. The two divisions compete separately in all sports except cheerleading and girls' wrestling. Division I schools are divided into three classes, as equally as possible, based on enrollment. A school's enrollment is multiplied by 2 if it is single-sex (the only single-sex school in Division I is Chattanooga Girls' Leadership Academy). Division II schools whose enrollment (with the single-sex multiplier taken into account) is below the smallest school in Division I Class AA are Class A; larger schools are Class AA. Finally, any school that wishes to play in a higher class may do so, but must do so for all sports other than football. A full reclassification is held every four years; at the midpoint, any school that has had a 20% increase or decrease in enrollment will be moved to the class appropriate to its new enrollment (a school that will be moved down may decline).


Football classification

Starting with the 2015 season, a new classification system was implemented for Division I football, separate from those of other sports. The 31 largest schools in the state, plus Maryville playing up by request, will constitute Class 6A; the remaining football-playing schools are divided as equally as possible into classes 1A through 5A. The option to play up will apply separately to football and to the rest of the sports. The 2015-2016 year varied from 2014-2015 only due to 20%-change adjustments.


Districts and Regions

For each sport, the schools competing are divided into regions, and/or districts depending on the sport.


Division I

*Basketball, Baseball, Softball, and Volleyball: Eight regions in each of the three classes, with two districts per region. *Football (starting 2015): Four regions in Class 6A, eight regions each in 1A through 5A, with no districts. *Soccer, Golf, and Tennis: Class AAA is as in basketball. Classes AA and A are combined, with districts/regions of the same number in the two classes competing together regardless of geography. (For example, soccer District 7 combines district 7-A in the Upper
Cumberland Plateau The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms " Al ...
with district 7-AA in western
Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...
.) *Cross-Country: As soccer, but with no districts (the state series begins with region meets). *Track and Field: Class AAA has four sections (pairs of basketball/etc. regions). Class A-AA has three sections, namely the three grand divisions. *Wrestling: In Class AAA, eight regions with two districts, but not the same as for other sports. (Districts are used only for the dual-meet series.) In Class A-AA, eight regions for duals, and three larger regions for the traditional series (note that one dual region is split between two traditional regions). *Bowling: A single class with eight regions containing from one to four districts each.


Division II

*Most sports: Three regions in each of the two classes, in line with the East, Middle, and West grand divisions. *Football: Split into three classes (A, AA, and AAA). In Classes A and AA, there are the three standard regions. In AAA, there are only two regions (East and West) that divide the state into halves. *Cross-Country: No Class AA regions (all 11 teams enter the state meet). *Track and Field, Wrestling, Bowling: One class with the usual three regions.


Combined Divisions

*Girls' Wrestling: Two regions, East and West. *Cheerleading/Dance: Classes are determined by number of competitors on the team and by the style of performance, as per cheerleading/dance tradition.


Administration

The TSSAA divides Tennessee's 95 counties, and the state's constituent Grand Divisions, into nine "athletic districts": * District 1: Carter, Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Greene, Hamblen, Hancock, Hawkins, Jefferson, Johnson, Sevier, Sullivan, Unicoi, and Washington counties * District 2: Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Knox, Loudon, McMinn, Monroe, Morgan, Roane, Scott, and Union counties * District 3: Bledsoe, Bradley, Grundy, Hamilton, Marion, Meigs, Polk, Rhea, and Sequatchie counties * District 4: Bedford, Cannon, Clay, Coffee, Cumberland, DeKalb, Fentress, Franklin, Jackson, Lincoln, Marshall, Moore, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Rutherford, Smith, Van Buren, Warren, White, and Wilson counties * District 5: Davidson, Macon, Montgomery, Robertson, Stewart, Sumner, and Trousdale counties * District 6: Cheatham, Dickson, Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Giles, Lawrence, Lewis, Maury, Perry, Wayne, and Williamson counties * District 7: Benton, Carroll, Chester, Decatur, Fayette, Hardeman, Hardin, Henderson, Henry, Madison, and McNairy counties * District 8: Crockett, Dyer, Gibson, Haywood, Lake, Lauderdale, Obion, Tipton, and Weakley counties * District 9: Shelby County **
East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 coun ...
comprises Districts 1, 2, and 3 **
Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital an ...
comprises Districts 4, 5, and 6 **
West Tennessee West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, delineated by state law. Its geography consists ...
comprises Districts 7, 8, and 9 These districts are unrelated to the competitive districts above (although a few sports do use the grand divisions as regions); their primary purpose is to elect the Board of Control (the administrative authority) and the Legislative Council. Each district elects one member to each for a staggered three-year term; in addition, starting in November 2015, three additional members will be chosen to represent non-public schools, one from each grand division.


Out-of-state teams

The sole out-of-state school that is a member of the TSSAA is
Northpoint Christian School Northpoint Christian School (NCS) is a private Christian school located in Southaven, Mississippi, that has been described as a white flight school. The school was founded in 1973 by a group of ten White Southern Baptist churches in the Whiteh ...
in
Southaven, Mississippi Southaven is a city in DeSoto County, Mississippi, United States. It is a principal city in Memphis metropolitan area, Greater Memphis. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census reported a population of 54,648, making it the List of municipal ...
, a suburb of Memphis. Northpoint votes in the Athletic District 9 elections. Cities and towns near Tennessee's borders with surrounding states, i.e.
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
,
Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
,
Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
, or
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, such as
Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
,
Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...
, Clarksville, and Memphis, do have various schools, both public and private, who play nearby out-of-state teams (which are not TSSAA members) on a regular basis, e.g. Heritage High School in
Ringgold, Georgia Ringgold is a city in and the county seat of Catoosa County, Georgia, United States. Its population was 3,414 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Chattanooga metropolitan area. History Ringgold was founded in 1846 and incorporated as a city i ...
for Chattanooga teams or Virginia High School in
Bristol, Virginia Bristol is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 17,219. It is the Twin cities (geographical proxi ...
for Bristol, Tennessee teams.


Notes


References


External links


Official Website
{{Authority control Education in Tennessee High school sports associations in the United States High school sports in Tennessee Sports organizations established in 1925