TSSAA Board of Control makes changes to determining enrollment for classification

The Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association will now be counting enrollment for future Division I classification purposes based on the previous end-of-the-year averages, as opposed to numbers given in September.

That was the biggest change that was made at the TSSAA Board of Control meeting Monday at the association's office.

The change will be effective for the upcoming cycle, meaning 2023-24 school year numbers (averages for the nine months) will be used when determining classification for each school in each sport. Those numbers will come from the State Department of Education.

However, if a school shows a 20% increase or decrease in attendance from the previous year when the September numbers are released for the current school year, those numbers will supersede the previous year's enrollment. That would mostly affect newer schools that started with just one or two classes or schools that lose a lot of students to another school.

TSSAA Executive Director Mark Reeves said the advantages to the approved proposal is that the organization can get numbers much sooner to begin determining new classification every two-year cycle, as that information is typically available by the beginning of June.

The TSSAA is targeting Oct. 1 for publishing the next classification cycle, while targeting Nov. 8 to release district and region alignments.

It was also pointed out that the numbers would paint a more accurate enrollment picture, as opposed to those tallied in the first month of a new school year.

"It's just a cleaner picture," said TSSAA Board of Control member Grant Swallows, who is Director of Schools in Warren County. "As (director) of schools, we really work hard to make sure the end-of-the-year enrollment number is accurate. From an organizational standpoint we're going to get a cleaner, better, more true enrollment picture by what's reported by the Department of Education."

Board members spent a considerable amount of time discussing and debating the topic, more for gaining an understanding of how it would affect schools.

"It's not that big of a change," Swallows said. "I can see where (some) are coming from, if there's a change in schools or if a school splits. That's why a board works. There's so many different perspectives in there, asking different questions. It's typically longer than we spend on a topic, but it's a very important thing. I want our schools to understand that we spent a long time talking about it."

TSSAA won't change Division II basketball, volleyball for now

Another topic brought to the table was the idea of adding a third class to Division II for basketball and volleyball.

Reeves recommended to deny the proposal because the organization wouldn't be able to support adding classes for other sports such as baseball and softball.

"We're maxed out, capacity wise (for state tournament in other sports)," he told the board, which carried the motion to make no changes. He added that he didn't foresee that being a reality for at least the next four years.

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Excess revenue: The TSSAA reported $1.6 million in revenue surplus for the 2023-24 fiscal year. That excess revenue was divided among the association's new building project as well as giving back to member schools.

The board voted to allocate $1.4 million in revenue to the Legacy Fund, which is earmarked for construction to the new TSSAA office building and $200,000 back to the schools. That money included a rebate to each school for 2023-24 membership dues, rebate to each school for 2023-24 golf fees, increase in awards to A.F. Bridges winners from $1,000 to $1,500 and supplying a new AED to 24 middle schools. They are also giving $4,000 in official recruitment and retention.

Division II crossover scheduling denied: A proposal to have required crossover scheduling between DII-A and DII-AA football teams was denied.

More games for pay: A TSSAA motion was carried to allow baseball, softball, volleyball, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls lacrosse and girls flag football to play two more regular-season contests (one home, one away) than they are normally limited to, with the host team contributing $100 toward the construction of a new TSSAA office building.

Cecil Joyce covers high school sports and MTSU athletics for The Daily News Journal. Contact him at cjoyce@dnj.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @Cecil_Joyce.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: TSSAA Board of Control makes changes to determining enrollment for classification