TSSAA

Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association

Abbreviation	TSSAA
Formation	1925
Type	Volunteer; NPO
Legal status	Association
Purpose	Athletic/Educational
Headquarters	3333 Lebanon Rd. Hermitage, TN 37076
Region served	Tennessee
Membership	374 schools
Official language	English
Executive Director	Bernard Childress
Affiliations	National Federation of State High School Associations
Budget	$1,200,000+
Website	tssaa.org
Remarks	(615) 889-6740

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA), along with the affiliated Tennessee Middle School Athletic Association (TMSAA), is an organization which administers junior and senior high school sporting events in Tennessee. The TSSAA (commonly pronounced "Tee double-S double-A") is the only high school athletic organization in the United States to have a five-sport, Olympic-style spring sport championship tournament, known as Spring Fling, for baseball, softball, track and field, team and individual tennis, and soccer. Spring Fling began in Chattanooga in 1993, later moving to Memphis, and then establishing itself in Murfreesboro. The TSSAA was one of the first high school athletic organizations to host a central site for football championships, beginning in 1982.

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association administers sporting events for an estimated 110,000 participants, 374 schools, 4,000 coaches, 3,000 officials, and 5,500 teams in the state of Tennessee. First organized in 1925, the TSSAA oversees athletic functions of both public and private schools. It includes schools throughout the state of Tennessee, as well as a single private school located in Mississippi.

In 2001, the association was a party in the United States Supreme Court case Brentwood Academy v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association.Brentwood Academy had sued the Association after the school was penalized for "undue influence" in recruiting football players, and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court. The court in this case held that a statewide association, incorporated to regulate interscholastic athletic competition among public and private schools, is regarded as engaging in state action when it enforces a rule against a member school.

The fall of 2009 was the first year for the TSSAA to divide into six playoff classifications for football.The new system allowed more teams into the playoffs. The state championship game for football, the BlueCross Bowl, which is held on Wednesday to Friday the first week of December and includes Division I classes 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A, as well as Div. II A and AA, has been held at Tennessee Tech University's Tucker Stadium in Cookeville since 2009.