By Michael Lindsay
TSSAA released their classifications by sport for the 2023-’25 cycle Tuesday morning, including multiple movements on the Upper Cumberland.
The biggest comes from Sparta.
White County, which has competed in Class 5A in football, is slated to drop to Class 4A alongside Upperman, Macon County, Stone Memorial, Livingston Academy, DeKalb County and Cumberland County. Regions have not been announced at this point; only classifications.
Locally, Cannon County, Jackson County, Kingston, Smith County, Trousdale County, Watertown and White County will each see at least one program change classification.
Along with classification data, TSSAA stated the following on their website (www.tssaa.org):
“Schools will have until Monday, October 24, 2022 to notify the state office of their wish to move up in any of the above classification plans.
Once the deadline passes, the state office staff, with input from Board members, will set districts and regions and post them to the TSSAA website when complete. District and region alignments will be published no later than one week prior to the Board of Control’s November 17, 2022 meeting. Any schools that disagree with their placement can have their appeal heard by the Board of Control at that time.
To be able to guarantee schools Friday-night region contests and better manage the current shortage of officials in many areas of the state, the state office will be setting the region football schedules for 2023 and 2024. The completed region schedules will be posted to the TSSAA website on November 21 at 1 PM central time (2 PM eastern). Region games will be scheduled from Week 3 through Week 11 with a small number of Week 1 and 2 games possible for the largest regions or in areas where there are fewer officiating crews available. Every school will play a Week 11 region game. Week 11 games for Classes 1A/3A/5A/DII-A/DII-AAA will be scheduled for Thursday in 2023 and Friday in 2024. Week 11 games for Classes 2A/4A/6A/DII-AA will be scheduled for Friday in 2023 and Thursday in 2024. Schools will be able to schedule non-region games once the region schedules are published on November 21.”
TSSAA’s classification data for every school and sport is available here: https://cms-files.tssaa.org/documents/tssaa/2022-23/2023classification.html
Listed below are Upper Cumberland and surrounding schools’ classifications for the upcoming 2023-’25 cycle. If a program is changing from its current 2021-’23 classification, the old classification is listed in parenthesis.
Bledsoe County
Football: 2A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 2A
Volleyball: 1A
Soccer: 1A
Cannon County:
Football: 2A (3A)
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 2A
Volleyball: 1A (2A)
Soccer: 1A
Clarkrange:
Football: No football
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 1A
Volleyball: 1A
Soccer: No Soccer
Clay County:
Football: 1A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 1A
Volleyball: 1A
Soccer: No soccer
Cookeville:
Football: 6A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 4A
Volleyball: 3A
Soccer: 3A
Cumberland County:
Football: 4A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 3A
Volleyball: 2A
Soccer: 2A
DeKalb County:
Football: 4A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 3A
Volleyball: No Volleyball
Soccer: 2A
Gordonsville:
Football: 1A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 1A
Volleyball: 1A
Soccer: No soccer
Harriman:
Football: 1A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 1A
Volleyball: 1A
Soccer: 1A
Jackson County:
Football: 2A (3A)
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 2A
Volleyball: 1A
Soccer: 1A
Kingston:
Football: 3A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 2A
Volleyball: 2A
Soccer: 1A (2A)
Livingston Academy:
Football: 4A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 3A
Volleyball: 2A
Soccer: 2A
Macon County:
Football: 4A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 3A
Volleyball: 2A
Soccer: 2A
Monterey:
Football: 2A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 2A
Volleyball: A
Soccer: No soccer
Pickett County:
Football: No Football
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 1A
Volleyball: No volleyball
Soccer: No soccer
Rhea County:
Football: 5A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 4A
Volleyball: 3A
Soccer: 3A
Scott:
Football: 3A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 3A
Volleyball: No Volleyball
Soccer: 2A
Smith County:
Football: 2A (3A)
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 2A
Volleyball: 1A
Soccer: 1A
Stone Memorial:
Football: 4A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 3A
Volleyball: 2A
Soccer: 2A
Trousdale County:
Football: 2A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 2A (1A)
Volleyball: A
Soccer: No Soccer
Upperman:
Football: 4A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 3A
Volleyball: 2A
Soccer: 2A
Van Buren County:
Football: 1A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 1A
Volleyball: 1A
Soccer: 1A
Warren County:
Football: 6A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 4A
Volleyball: 3A
Soccer: 3A
Watertown:
Football: 3A (2A)
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 2A
Volleyball: 2A (1A)
Soccer: 2A (1A)
White County:
Football: 4A (5A)
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 3A
Volleyball: AAA
Soccer: AA
York Institute:
Football: 2A
Basketball, Baseball, Softball: 2A
Volleyball: A
Soccer: A