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Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association

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.[1] 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.[2][3] Spring Fling began in Chattanooga in 1993, later moving to Memphis, and then establishing itself in Murfreesboro.[3][4][5] The TSSAA was one of the first high school athletic organizations to host a central site for football championships, beginning in 1982.[4]

Abbreviation

TSSAA

1925

Volunteer; NPO

Association

Athletic/Educational

3333 Lebanon Rd.
Hermitage, TN 37076

Tennessee

374 schools

English

Mark Reeves

National Federation of State High School Associations

$1,200,000+

tssaa.org

(615) 889-6740

Description[edit]

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 in the state of Tennessee. First organized in 1925, the TSSAA oversees athletic functions of both public and private schools. It includes schools throughout the state of Tennessee.


In 2001, the association was a party in the United States Supreme Court case Brentwood Academy v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association.[6] Brentwood Academy 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 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's Tucker Stadium in Cookeville 2009 – 2020 and has been held in Chattanooga since 2021.

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 with district 7-AA in western Chattanooga.)

Cumberland Plateau

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.

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

East Tennessee

The TSSAA divides Tennessee's 95 counties, and the state's constituent Grand Divisions, into nine "athletic districts":[11]


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[edit]

The sole out-of-state school that is a member of the TSSAA is Northpoint Christian School in Southaven, Mississippi, 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, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, or Virginia, such as Bristol, Chattanooga, 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 for Chattanooga teams or Virginia High School in Bristol, Virginia for Bristol, Tennessee teams.

Official Website