DATE: December 9, 2005

TO: Principals of TSSAA Member Schools

FROM: Ronnie Carter, Executive Director

RE: Change in Article IV, Section 1, of the TSSAA Bylaws

The Legislative Council, at its December 1, 2005 meeting, amended Article IV, Section 1 of the TSSAA Bylaws in regard to "Schools Which Member Schools May Play or Scrimmage." In the past, Section I (a), (b), (c), and (e) stated that schools may play or scrimmage other members of the association, schools of other state athletic associations, and non-member schools that are in category 1, 2, or 3. This meant that schools must be accredited by the State Department of Education, a State Department of Education approved agencies, or the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

The Legislative Council amended Article IV, Section 1 to now state:

A member of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association is permitted to play or scrimmage any secondary school with grades 9 and above in regular season play.

For purposes of this rule, a school team may be one school or a cooperative program of one or more schools.

We will also add the following to the definitions section:

School team – An entity comprised of one or more students in a school, under the control and conduct of the school, which represents the school in interscholastic athletic competition.

In amending the Bylaw, the Legislative Council also took action for this change to go into effect immediately.

This change means that it is no longer necessary for schools to request permission in writing to play a non-member school. The change permits TSSAA member schools to play any school team they choose in regular season competition. It prompts the following two questions:

What school(s) can I now play that I could not play before?

(a) Schools that are category 4 and 5 in the state of Tennessee.

(b) Non-member schools in other states that are not approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

(c) An individual home schooled student who might be invited to participate in a track meet, wrestling competition, golf competition, etc. This would primarily apply to individual sports.

(d) A home school team in a team sport, such as basketball, baseball, softball, etc., where home schooled students go together to form a cooperative team.

Who can I not play?

(a) Any non-school team. Examples would be a club team, recreational park league team, or any type of independent team.

While the change will allow great flexibility to all member schools in regard to scrimmaging or playing any school team that they choose to play, all schools are reminded that it does not change anything in regard to Article IV, Section 3 regarding "Interstate Tournaments and Track Meets and Contests with Out-Of-State Teams." This section deals with the sanctioning of tournaments and any tournament falling under Article IV, Section 3 must still follow the same procedure as in the past.

Please see that your athletic directors and coaches receive a copy of this memo.

If you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to contact me.

RC