State Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, has proposed legislation for the upcoming session that could move the state’s high school athletics governing body to allow athletes to transfer schools with fewer restrictions.¶
State Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka¶
Under current Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) rules, students are not eligible to transfer to another school in a different zone for one calendar year from their last varsity game unless they have a bona fide change of address. If passed, House Bill 25 would allow students a one-time opportunity to join a sports team immediately after transferring to a new school. The legislation would also prohibit public schools from using public funds to join an athletic association that doesn’t grant immediate athletic eligibility to a student who transfers no more than once, and would apply to groups that regulate interscholastic athletes like the TSSAA.¶
“Students face many difficulties when switching schools, and this one-time transfer opportunity seeks to streamline the process by allowing athletes to continue playing the sport they love,” Cepicky said in a public statement. “Access to athletics and other extracurricular activities is paramount to improved academic outcomes and overall success. This legislation is a common-sense way to level the playing field and encourage student engagement and participation.”¶
According to a recent memo from TSSAA Executive Director Mark Reeves, a majority of public schools (58 percent) and a larger majority of independent schools (72 percent) expressed opposition last year to such proposals that would permit transfers without loss of athletic eligibility. However, Reeves noted, a significant number of member schools did support the proposal (40 percent).¶
Reeves said he believes proposals such as Cepicky’s could be tied to the school choice movement, and more specifically Gov. Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Act of 2025, which aims to expand school choice statewide by allowing more Tennessee families to use public funds for private school enrollment.¶
“Based on conversations with legislators, we expect additional legislation could be introduced, and some of it may not be as limited as House Bill 25,” he wrote in the memo. “The interest of legislators in this issue is based in part on what they are hearing from their constituents, but that is not their sole motivation. The school choice movement, including the governor’s push to expand education savings accounts, is also a factor (so that restrictions on transfer student eligibility will not be a deterrent to school choice decisions).”¶
In addition to the legislative interest in these issues, Reeves said TSSAA leaders have also “heard from some sources” about possible legal challenges to current TSSAA transfer rules. He said TSSAA’s lawyers are currently taking time to “give more study to those issues as well.”¶
Reeves said the aim of current TSSAA restrictions is to ensure fair competition and prevent the “victimization of student-athletes through athletic exploitation.” He said legislators “may not appreciate” the fact that changing the rules under state law “would result in creating a system that cannot be easily modified if an eligibility standard becomes unworkable as the landscape of education evolves.”¶
“Those who do not work regularly in education-based athletics sometimes fail to distinguish the dramatic differences between intercollegiate athletics, where athletes are recruited to engage in elite competition, and interscholastic athletics whose primary purpose is to supplement the academic programs of a school,” Reeves wrote in the memo.¶
“Because many do not appreciate those differences, outsiders are sometimes too quick to assume that what works at the intercollegiate level is appropriate for the interscholastic level. Outsiders also may not fully appreciate how important the transfer rule is in the prevention of athletic recruiting because the prospect of a year of ineligibility discourages student-athletes from becoming victims of athletic recruiting.”¶
Reeves encouraged education leaders and TSSAA members to call their legislators to share their perspectives on recent proposals and to “educate them on aspects of interscholastic athletics they may not fully understand or appreciate.”¶
Moving forward, he said the Legislative Council will hold a special called meeting on Feb. 4 to address concerns about legislative proposals that would change transfer eligibility rules.¶
