The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association’s Board of Control has released the minutes from Wednesday’s meeting in Hermitage pertaining to football classification period for the 2017-18 and run through 2020-2021
1. Roll Call
2. Division I and Division II Classification
The Board of Control voted the following for the classification period that will begin with the 2017-2018 school year and run through 2020-2021:
DIVISION II
Division II football will be divided into three classes. Schools with enrollments up to 265 will be in Class A. Schools with enrollments 266-530 will be in Class AA. Schools with enrollments 531 and above will be in AAA.
The sports of wrestling and bowling in Division II will be one class.
Classification in Division II for all sports other than football, wrestling, and bowling will be divided into two classes. Schools with enrollments of 450 and below will be in Class A. Schools with enrollments above 450 will be in Class AA.
DIVISION I
Board voted to have six classes in Division I football, split evenly.
Board voted to have three classes in basketball, baseball, and softball in Division I (current plan).
Board voted to have three classes in volleyball, split by participating schools in Division I.
Board voted to have three classes in soccer, split by participating schools in Division I.
Board voted to have two classes, split by participating schools (small/large) in cross country, track and field, golf, and tennis in Division I.
Board voted to have two classes in wrestling, current plan (A-AA/AAA) in Division I
Board voted to have one class in bowling in Division I.
The Board voted to rotate which football championship games are played on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday – three games each day.
Division II will be on Thursday in 2016, Friday in 2017, etc.
3. Voted to continue to use a 1.8 multiplier for independent schools that decide to participate in Division I. Board voted to remove the restriction that states that no school can be moved up more than one class due to the multiplier.
4. The Board voted for the state office staff to set District/Regional Alignments and publish them when they are finalized. This will be done prior to the November Board of Control meeting, giving schools an opportunity to appeal if they feel they have a legitimate reason.
5. The Board voted that the state office to continue to reevaluate every member school’s enrollment figures after two years during the four year classification cycle. Schools that have a 20% decrease/increase in enrollment which causes them to move to another class are moved at that time.
6. Board voted that schools can move up sport-by-sport in classification.
(Reach Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)