MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – While the TSSAA’s Legislative Council closed the door on a proposal to split all public and private schools into separate divisions Thursday, it left open the potential for change on a smaller scale.
With a 5-4 vote, the council voted down the proposal by administrators from Lewis County and Trousdale County to force all 24 private schools that currently compete in Division I to move to Division II.
Instead, the council asked the TSSAA staff to come back by mid-September with proposed changes to the association’s constitutional by-laws that would resolve the most prominent concerns of its member schools.
Those concerns include student employment, more commonly known as work study, tougher recruiting rules, tuition for athletes’ siblings and non-faculty coaches.
“I’m pleased the council members made this decision so we can explore every option and address these main issues by tweaking our by-laws rather than just vote for a complete split,” TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress said.