TSSAA presents three options for high school football schedule, playoffs this season

High school football won't start on time in Tennessee. But the TSSAA presented three options that include shortened seasons with state champions still crowned.

TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress presented the options Wednesday to the Board of Control.

Under the COVID-19 state of emergency order Gov. Bill Lee extended through Aug. 29, contact sports are limited. For the TSSAA, that includes football, soccer, basketball and wrestling.

The first Friday night of football was originally set for Aug. 21. Under all three plans, football practice with contact could return on Aug. 30 if the emergency order is lifted with the first games on Sept. 18. The championships would remain Dec. 3-5.

No decision was made Wednesday. The board will reconvene July 8 and wants a plan in place by the end of July.

The first option is a seven-game regular season with the regular 32-team Division I playoff brackets and normal brackets for Division II. TSSAA would set the region schedules.

Teams that did not make the playoffs could play two more games.

The second option is an eight-game regular season with a 16-team Division I playoff bracket and normal brackets for Division II. Only the region champion and runner-up would make the playoffs rather than the top four teams in each Division I region.

The TSSAA would set the region schedules and the playoffs would start Nov. 13.

The third option is a nine-game regular season with an eight-team playoff bracket for Division I and Division II. Only the region champion would make the playoffs in Division I.

The schools would keep their current schedule starting with Week 5 on Sept. 18, and then go back to play Week 3 games on Nov. 6 and Week 4 games on Nov. 13. The playoffs would start Nov. 20.

“I like all three of them. I see pluses and negatives to all three," Oakland  coach Kevin Creasy said. "But with that being said, ultimately the TSSAA and Board of Control are going to have to make some tough decisions. Hopefully they get the input of just not administrators and people on the board, but hopefully they will talk to coaches that are around players more than anybody.”

There was a fourth option considered without state championships, but Childress said that no one had really pushed that idea. Under that option, the season would start on Sept. 18 with the schedule as is, and then teams would go back and pick up the other games instead of having a postseason.

“My opinion on it is that I would take the eight games," Memphis Academy of Health Sciences football coach Cedric Miller said. "If we did only seven games that means for me in my district, I would lose a league game because we have eight teams in our district in 2A. So I would rather take the top two and then roll that way instead of taking some of my league games. That’s how it was when I was playing in high school here in Memphis anyway, they only took the top two out of the district. ... We have to come to some type of decision and stick with it and see how it goes."

For some though, there are bigger questions to answer.

"I know the people leading our association have a lot more knowledge than I do, but I was disappointed listening to the Board of Control meeting as I think we spent a lot of time on trying on how to start and not a lot of discussion was going on as to how we would finish," Peabody football coach Shane Jacobs said. "There are a lot of 'what ifs' as to what could happen once the season starts, and we don't have answers to those questions. I think those are just as important as the questions of how to start."

When the TSSAA dead period ends on Monday, teams can resume conditioning and weightlifting but they can't have close contact activities, including 7-on-7 competitions.

TSSAA assistant executive director Mark Reeves said he has been in communication with the governor's office about putting the TSSAA in the same category as college and professional sports so the restriction on contact would not apply.

The regular-season schedules for football and girls soccer are the only fall sports affected so far. Girls soccer games had been set to begin Aug. 17.

"Cross county, golf and volleyball can continue to follow the TSSAA calendar and start their seasons as they would any other year," Childress said.

Cross country and volleyball can start practicing on July 27 with games starting Aug. 17. Golf can start practicing July 13 with matches starting on July 27.

Childress recommended extending the girls soccer season a few weeks and playing the state championships at a later date, so that the players have a full season.

"At this point, we all have to be flexible and understand it is a unique circumstance," University School of Jackson soccer coach Paul Conway said. "It is not going to alter what we are doing through the summer. It is frustrating, but there is some light there. It is important to have that potential to know that all of this training that we are going to do, there is a light at the end of it."

Reach Michael Odom at michodom@jacksonsun.com or 731-425-9754. Follow him on Twitter @JSWriterMichael.