31-03-2025
TSSAA tells Tennessee high school coaches one-time transfer bill ‘must be defeated'
The TSSAA is making a final push against Tennessee legislation targeting the state's high school athletics transfer rules.
The TSSAA sent a letter to Tennessee high school coaches on Sunday 'strongly' encouraging them to ask their local representatives to vote no on House Bill 25 and Senate Bill 16.
The TSSAA provided the letter to The Tennessean. It states that the bills, while amended to include similar language to a change the TSSAA Legislative Council made to its transfer rule earlier this month, would lessen the state high school association's ability to oversee its rule.
'If you want the member schools of TSSAA to continue to have control of transfer eligibility issues, we believe the bill must be defeated,' the letter says. " We strongly encourage you to prioritize some time on Monday to contact your representative to respectfully ask that they vote (no on the bills).This will allow the transfer rule that the TSSAA Legislative Council just amended to have an opportunity to take effect and avoid these unnecessary, unintended consequences."
HB25 advanced to the House Education Committee and will be heard Wednesday. SB16 passed the Senate Education Committee by a 6-3 vote last Wednesday and will be placed on the Senate calendar.
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The bills must be voted through the House and Senate to become law.
The bills were intended to provide student-athletes more freedom and initially threatened to change TSSAA transfer rules to allow athletes one free transfer without eligibility restrictions regardless of the reason.
The TSSAA's transfer rule, until the Council's provision on March 3, required athletes who transfer schools to be ineligible for one year unless they have a bona fide change of address. The provision loosened the TSSAA's rule, allowing athletes one free transfer to another school without loss of eligibility if the transfer is due to reasons of significant academic, social-emotional, environmental or mental health need. That's as long as the sending school's administration could attest within seven days that the move is not for athletic or disciplinary reasons.
TSSAA executive director Mark Reeves and association legal counsel Rick Colbert said, during testimony at the House Education Administration subcommittee hearing on March 18 and the Senate Education Committee's hearing last week, that the association will face serious issues if there are high school athletics transfer rules in state law. Colbert said the TSSAA is ill-equipped to handle the increased litigation he believes would take place, and that he foresees inconsistent court decisions from judges in different counties. The TSSAA member schools would ultimately bear the legal costs.
The House and Senate bills also do not address transfers in specific situations that would violate other TSSAA rules, such the coaching link and age rule. TSSAA rules don't allow students to be eligible if they're 19 on or before August 1 of a school year. Students are also ineligible if they transfer to a new school where an athletic coaching link exists in the past 12 months.
If Tennessee passes legislation regulating athletic transfer rules, the TSSAA believes it would lead to a landscape like the NCAA's where there are no transfer rules at all. The association has long said that its transfer restrictions inhibit illegal recruiting between high schools and uphold TSSAA core principles.
'Adding any TSSAA eligibility requirements to Tennessee State Law will eventually make it very difficult for TSSAA to have any transfer restrictions,' the TSSAA letter to coaches states. 'Putting eligibility rules into state law will make it unnecessarily difficult to adjust eligibility rules as needed.'
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at tpalmateer@ and on the X platform, formerly Twitter, @tpalmateer83.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA one-time transfer rule: Coaches urged to push back on Tennessee legislation
