HERMITAGE, Tenn. — Whether or not the TSSAA saved the best for last is debatable, but the state’s high school sports governing body certainly saved the most intriguing item for last during Thursday’s Legislative Council meeting.
The council, which is responsible for setting the rules and laws member schools must abide by, took action on 12 items over the course of the six-hour meeting inside TSSAA headquarters. But it was two of the final agenda items — both were tabled to a later date to allow further discussion — that drew the most attention from anyone interested in the future of prep sports in Tennessee.
Rarely has one item dominated the tone of a meeting more than the prospect of a potential transfer rule, which seemed to cast a shadow over the voting for multiple other items, including a proposal that would affect boarding schools such as Baylor and McCallie.
As a refresher, Adam Lowe, Republican state senator for Tennessee’s District 1 (Bradley, McMinn, Meigs and Rhea counties), drafted Senate Bill 443 — otherwise known as the Access and Opportunity Act — that was overwhelmingly passed by both the Tennessee House (83-5) and the Senate (32-0 with one absentee) over the summer.
That bill states that an incoming student arriving from anywhere cannot be discriminated against because of where they came from. Whether transferring from one in-state school to another, or from an out-of-state school to within Tennessee, those students are entitled to all the same activities as other students.