TSSAA Legislative Council denies one-time transfer proposal in Tennessee with 12-0 vote
MT. JULIET — The TSSAA Legislative Council denied a proposal Tuesday that would have allowed Tennessee high school athletes a one-time free transfer without eligibility restrictions.
A motion to deny was approved by a 12-0 vote in response to a proposal made by Baylor School in Chattanooga.
The TSSAA has been under pressure from Tennessee lawmakers to change its long-standing transfer rule, which required athletes who leave one school for another in a different zone to be ineligible for one calendar year from their last varsity game unless they have a bona fide change of address. The proposal would have allowed no more than one transfer without residency requirements.
Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, proposed House Bill No. 0025 in December, which would change TSSAA transfer rules to allow athletes one free transfer without eligibility restrictions. The bill's language was more direct than previous legislation aimed at the TSSAA's transfer regulations, and it has Senate sponsorship.
Also, Tennessee Republican lawmakers last week gave final approval to a $447 million statewide publicly funded school voucher program, which will offer 20,000 scholarships of about $7,300 to Tennessee students. The school-choice philosophy behind vouchers and the TSSAA's previous transfer rules were not aligned. The association's restrictions might have deterred athletes from accepting a voucher if they could not gain immediate eligibility at another school.
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Tennessee's current voucher program encompasses 2,095 students from three counties who can receive taxpayer funding to attend private schools. Those transfer requests are processed under the current TSSAA rules.
According to a TSSAA poll, a little more than half its member schools said they didn't want to amend transfer rules. Baylor, whose rule proposal for a one-time transfer was tabled by the Council in December, stated in its proposal that the change became necessary as a result of the TSSAA Legislative Council amending its amateur rule to allow NIL payments in 2023.
'That acknowledged the commercial interests of high school athletes,' Baylor stated as its rationale in the proposal. 'Continuing to enforce the existing transfer rules that restrict the value of a high school athlete is and will continue to be under antitrust scrutiny as the TSSAA is the lone body in which a high school athlete can compete in the state of Tennessee. The threat of possible litigation from affected families towards the TSSAA, and/or its member schools warrants significant change to the current transfer rules.'
The Legislative Council also unanimously denied a proposal from St. Andrew's - Sewanee that would have loosened transfer rules. It proposed that students transferring for academic reasons can retain varsity eligibility if their previous school could confirm the move was academic and unrelated to sports. Principals at schools on both sides of the transfer would have had to agree to that.
The Council also denied a proposal, 11-1, from McCallie that would have lessened the competitive advantage boarding schools have over others. McCallie proposed to put a limit on the number of boarding school students who can compete on athletic teams. The proposal also stipulated that students transferring from inside Tennessee to a boarding school after ninth grade would be ineligible for a year. Transfers from beyond Tennessee would be immediately eligible unless they're seniors.
Reach sports writer Tyler Palmateer at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, formerly Twitter, @tpalmateer83.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA one-time transfer proposal in Tennessee denied in 12-0 vote
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