Tennessee's TSSAA moves up fall one-time transfer processing

At one time, you couldn’t utilizing transferring schools and being eligible if you were a high school student-athlete within the Volunteer State. Now, you can and that process date has been set by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) earlier this week.

According to a press release made by Tennessee’s governing body for high school sports, the TSSAA announced they will be able to begin processing all one-time transfer option forms beginning on July 14th.

The one-time transfer rule was passed back in March and the primary reason for pushing the date up was to give student-athletes a way back to their previous school in the case they’re ruled ineligible.

“That would allow the state office and the schools who are requesting eligibility determinations to get those quicker,” TSSAA executive director Mark Reeves said via The Tennessean. “We would anticipate that there’s going to be an uptick in what we intend to receive this year, specifically because of the new transfer provision.”

Athletes that will also be able to utilize the one-time transfer option are international and out-of-state students as well.

The TSSAA passed a bylaw back in early March that would allow student-athletes a single transfer to another school without sanction.

What the previous rule that was in place in Tennessee regarding transferring was that it required athletes transferring from schools to different zones would be required to sit out one year after their last varsity game. Now that would be in place still unless the athlete has provided a verified change of address.

The main concerns among TSSAA board members regarding the new rule are over why and what exactly the reasons for transferring from school-to-school would be. TSSAA has deemed acceptable reasons for student-athlete transferring schools would include social-emotional, environmental, mental health and significant academic circumstances, according to a report by 10 WBIR.