Latest news with #ScottCepicky
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
TSSAA one-time transfer proposal in Tennessee approved with 8-4 vote
HERMITAGE — The TSSAA Legislative Council approved a proposal Monday that will allow athletes one free transfer to another school without loss of eligibility if the transfer is for reasons unrelated to athletics. The Council approved the proposal in an 8-4 vote at its special-called meeting. The new bylaw will allow students one free transfer to another school due to reasons of significant academic, social-emotional, environmental or mental health need as long as the sending school's administration could attest the move is not for athletic or disciplinary reasons. The decision comes as Tennessee legislators consider House Bill 25, which if passed into law would change TSSAA transfer rules to allow athletes one free transfer without eligibility restrictions. More: TSSAA basketball region tournament brackets, scores for Nashville area More: TSSAA basketball state tournament: Division II championships brackets The TSSAA and lawmakers have been discussing the association's transfer rules for more than a year. TSSAA member schools have wanted to keep the long-standing bylaw that requires 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. Legislators are pushing to make the rule less restrictive in light of the Tennessee legislature's approval of a $447 million statewide publicly funded school voucher program. HB25's author, Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, told The Tennesseean he would pull the legislation if the Council approved a change that aligned with the bill. Cepicky and Senator Adam Lowe, R-Calhoun, a co-sponsor of the bill, both said last week that the TSSAA's new proposal wasn't sufficient enough to do that. The TSSAA Legislative Council unanimously denied a proposal at its Feb. 4 meeting that aligned with HB25 and would have allowed an unrestricted one-time transfer for athletes. Council members said they wanted to find a pathway for students to transfer without restriction as long as the move didn't involve athletics. That drove the TSSAA staff to write the proposal considered on Monday. The TSSAA voted to return in April to discuss more specifics about the proposal, such as how long schools will have to verify whether the student is transferring for non-athletic reasons. After an athlete transfers one time under the new rule, all eligibility issues will be addressed through the TSSAA's hardship rule, which requires a formal appeal to the TSSAA executive director. Reach sports writer Tyler Palmateer at tpalmateer@ and on the X platform, formerly Twitter, @tpalmateer83. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA one-time transfer proposal in Tennessee approved in 8-4 vote
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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. More: NFHS announces high school football rule changes, including electronic communication More: What are the Nashville area's best TSSAA basketball gymnasiums? We narrowed it to 15 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@ 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
