Tennessee's one-time transfer law prompted a TSSAA proposal to increase the penalty for breaking its illegal recruiting rule.
Tennessee high schools could face harsher penalties for breaking the TSSAA’s recruiting rule if a new proposal gains passage through the association’s Legislative Council.
The TSSAA presented a standardized version of recruiting penalties at its regular March 4 Board of Control meeting, with four levels of violations that increase the punishment for schools caught breaking the recruiting rule.
The TSSAA is being proactive as it anticipates a landscape shift from Gov. Bill Lee's recently signed one-time transfer law, which goes into effect July 1. Some Board members have said illegal recruiting is already increasing under the TSSAA’s current version of a one-time transfer rule.
“It would stand to reason that instances of recruiting will increase. They probably have,” TSSAA executive director Mark Reeves said during the meeting, adding that his hope is the Legislative Council approves the proposal.
The most notable punishment in the proposal triggers restrictive probation — which bars a school from the TSSAA playoffs — if a violation warrants it. It is believed the TSSAA has not issued a restrictive probation penalty for recruiting in decades.
The TSSAA currently lacks a standard penalty for breaking the recruiting rule, which is defined as persons directly or indirectly associated with a school influencing a student or parents or guardians of a student to retain a student for athletic purposes.
In some cases now, the TSSAA gives schools an opportunity to sanction themselves, and then the TSSAA applies its own punishment based on precedent with past rulings.
A streamlined process would allow the TSSAA to apply its rules without subjectivity, Reeves said.
TSSAA recruiting rules, response to one-time transfer law
The proposed violations are tiered from Level 1-4, with Level 4 wielding the harshest punishment.
Level 1 violations involve indirect solicitation such as coaches commenting on or sharing students’ social media posts prior to a student’s enrollment at the school. Level 2 involves general recruiting or protocol violations. Level 3 is considered “targeted recruiting (direct contact)”, and Level 4 involves “aggravated recruiting (inducements).”
Level 4 would trigger a coaching suspension, two years of restrictive probation plus one year of regular probation, removal of all offseason practice for two years and half of offseason practice in year three, and a $4,000 total fine.
There’s a notable change within Level 3, which is triggered if “a coach sends a (direct message) or text to a student-athlete at another school to ask whether they are interested in transferring or applying to that school, or if a coach asks a current player or booster to contact a specific student at another school to ‘recruit’ them.”
Under the proposed penalties, a Level 3 violation triggers restrictive probation, which bans schools from the TSSAA playoffs in their sport during the year of the violation. It also includes a coaching suspension; removal of all off-season practice opportunities in year one; removal of half of the off-season practice opportunities in year two and a total fine of $2,750.
For context, Blackman and MBA were put on probation recently when assistant coaches initiated direct contact with a student on social media prior to the student submitting a formal inquiry to the school. In both instances, the schools were given smaller fines compared to the proposed punishments, more lenient offseason practice sanctions and both were allowed to participate in the TSSAA football playoffs.
Under all the violations, student-athletes involved could be deemed ineligible for one year at their new school.
“Those third and fourth tiers, the more severe penalties, I think those penalties were pretty harsh," said Board member Dexter Williams of Trinity Christian Academy. And quite honestly, I think they should be."
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform,@tpalmateer83.
He also contributes to The Tennessean's high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg.Subscribe to The Bootleg here.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee one-time transfer law could sharpen TSSAA recruiting penalties
Category: General Sports
