After previously approving plans for a revision to fall sports in Tennessee, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association can now move forward with their original plans for sports, including football, for the fall season. In a press conference Tuesday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced that he will sign Executive Order No. 55, which will include TSSAA member schools in an exception to contact sports restrictions.
Although contact practice is now permissible in Tennessee, officials state the regulations and requirements for practice and competition adopted by the Board of Control at their July 22 meeting are still in place for all sports and must be followed. The TSSAA notes that once the order is signed, contact may take place in girls’ soccer practice. With the change by the Governor, the girls’ soccer season in Tennessee will now start on the original date of August 17, with the state championships to be held October 28-31 in Murfreesboro.
Football teams were alreadt allowed to begin heat acclimatization on July 20th. With the Governor’s new order, no changes to the 2020 football schedule, regular season or otherwise, will be made. The contingency plan for football passed by the Board of Control last week stated that if contact practice could resume prior to August 4, then no contests would be rescheduled. So now, the football season is back on track to start August 21st, with no changes to the dates or playoff structure.
