Classification
The TSSAA sorts schools into classes by how many students they enroll in grades 9 through 12, and that decision governs who a team can play for a state title. The association publishes the enrollment report that does it. This is what it says.
The size of the field
Every football class, smallest school to largest
Enrollment, grades 9-12The last column is the one worth reading. It is how many times bigger the largest school in a class is than the smallest school in the same class, both of them playing for the same state championship.
| Class | Teams | Smallest school | Enrolled | Largest school | Enrolled | Median | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 1A Division I | 51 | Gleason High School | 105 | Hampton High School | 389 | 278 | 3.7x |
| Class 2A Division I | 45 | Houston Co. High School | 354 | Cannon Co. High School | 528 | 447 | 1.5x |
| Class 3A Division I | 48 | Waverly Central High School | 447 | Brainerd High School | 743 | 618 | 1.7x |
| Class 4A Division I | 53 | Pearl Cohn High School | 524 | Spring Hill High School | 1,216 | 823 | 2.3x |
| Class 5A Division I | 47 | Kirkwood High School | 999 | Walker Valley High School | 1,481 | 1,270 | 1.5x |
| Class 6A Division I | 49 | Whitehaven High School | 1,486 | Collierville High School | 2,989 | 1,859 | 2.0x |
| Class A Division II | 19 | Mt. Juliet Christian Academy | 129 | Nashville Christian School | 261 | 201 | 2.0x |
| Class AA Division II | 20 | Davidson Academy | 264 | Chattanooga Christian School | 503 | 389 | 1.9x |
| Class AAA Division II | 12 | Lipscomb Academy | 468 | Christian Brothers High School | 1,474 | 765 | 3.1x |
How to read this
Enrollment figures are the association's own, taken from the classification report that set the current cycle. They are grade 9-12 headcounts, not total school enrollment, which is why they will not match a district's published numbers for a school that also holds middle grades.
Division I is the public-school division and is split into numbered classes by size. Division II is the independent-school division, and it does not classify on enrollment alone: the association also applies a success formula built from region winning percentage, scoring margin, and postseason wins, which can move a private school up a class after a strong run.
A team can schedule almost anyone it likes in the regular season. Classification governs the postseason, and in football it also governs most of the regular-season schedule, because region games are fixed.
Where a class shows fewer schools with an enrollment than it has teams, the missing schools joined the association after the classification report that set this cycle. They are counted in the team total and left out of the smallest and largest columns rather than estimated.