TSSAA Tells High School Coaches One-Time Transfer Bill 'Must Be Defeated'

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) continues to push against legislation in Tennessee's General Assembly that would allow high school student-athletes to transfer schools once and not lose eligibility to play in their sport.

As reported by ABC affiliate WTVC in Chattanooga, The TSSAA's Legislative Council recently approved a rule that would allow this. However, the one move must be unrelated to athletics. "That's after facing pressure to find eligibility for students who accept school vouchers," WTVC's Maggie Weaver reported.

The TSSAA is urging Tennessee high school coaches to oppose bills that would regulate high school athletic transfer rules, arguing that legislating transfer rules would limit its ability to oversee its own rules and lead to increased litigation. The TSSAA told coaches such bills 'must be defeated," The Commercial Appeal of Memphis reported this week.

"Not one rule that they've passed in their 100-year history has affected what a coach or athletic director does. They move freely. They can do whatever they want to do, but they use their rules to police children as pawns in supporting that structure. And that's what we've got to change," said Senator Adam Lowe, who wants to cement those rules by changing the law, as reported by WTVC.

Some state lawmakers say there's a lack of accountability and representation for parents and students in the TSSAA, and this causes some distrust of the association, according to Lowe. 

"What we discovered was that TSSAA does not have a voice for students and parents," he says. "Not only do they not have a voice at the table in how they make decisions and govern, they have effectively created an opportunity to insulate themselves from lawsuits for those people to have recourse, and they've done that since 1968."

Local coaches told WTVC that the TSSAA sent out a letter asking them to tell their local representative to vote against Lowe's bill. Coaches say the letter mentioned that the TSSAA thinks its Legislative Council is better positioned than the State Legislature to quickly change the rule if it doesn't work as intended. Some lawmakers worry the association will go back on its current rule if it's not in writing, ultimately hurting students, per Weaver's reporting.

"It seems a little disingenuous to me to create rules and then ask us to say, 'Well, we don't want you to write them down. We want you to trust us,' " Lowe said, adding of students, "They're constantly forced to make decisions between whether they continue to do this thing that they love that's an essential part of their mental health and belonging, or if they go to the place they really want. We make them choose between academics and athletics."