The TSSAA’s tectonic plates — the foundation on which the governing body for Tennessee high school sports was built since the organization’s inception in 1925 — were rocked by a seismic shift earlier this week.
It’s a potential transfer of power that could forever change the way prep sports across the Volunteer state are governed.
On Monday, state senator J. Adam Lowe, who represents District 1 (Bradley, Meigs, McMinn and Rhea counties) and Scott Cepicky, a fellow Republican politician who serves in the Tennessee House of Representatives, held a joint press conference where they announced their intention to research the possibility of dissolving the TSSAA and bringing the power of overseeing high school sports under the control of state government.
The timeline for any such changes would be before the 2026 session (next February).
The announcement sent shock waves throughout the state’s prep sports world, from the Tri-Cities to Mud Island, as it signaled the reality that Tennessee could join a growing list of states whose ruling authority for high school sports has been taken over by state government.