2023-24 Reclassification
On October 18th, 2022, the TSSAA published the Sport-by-sport reclassifications for the next two year cycle. Until recently, this exercise used to only occur every four years. At that time you were likely highly invested in another season of another sport and though you're currently focused on the track season at hand, it may be worth taking a couple of minutes to examine what Class AAA will look like next season given the current section alignment.
Map
You can look at the breakdown of schools by section on the TSSAA website but sometimes line items in a list does not give you the full picture of how things are divided. Below is a color-coded map that may help illustrate. Each county that has a AAA-Sized School is listed with an associated number of AAA-Sized Schools in that county below. You can view this more clearly if you download the PDF of the map or view on the SCRIBD Website by clicking the full screen option.
High Level Breakdown
Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Section 4 | |
| Primary City Associations | Knoxville Maryville Johnson City | Chattanooga Cleveland Murfreesboro | Nashville Clarksville Brentwood Columbia Mt. Juliet | Memphis Collierville Germantown |
| Number of Schools | 22 | 20 | 34 | 14 |
Notable Changes
- Schools Moving Up to AAA: Page, East Hamilton, Munford
- Schools Moving Out of AAA: Station Camp, Franklin County
- New Schools: Kirkwood
- Schools Moving Laterally: Nolensville moves from Section 2 to Section 3
Competitive Balance
Most people on the surface will see the glaring incongruencies with the total number of schools in the competitive sections. As it pertains to Section 4, there's really no reasonable way geographically to just "add schools" to the Memphis area outside of possibly Henry County. Where the most sensible changes can be made are between Sections 2 and 3. I imagine the thought process with moving Nolensville back to Section 3 was to ensure all the Williamson County Schools were in the same qualifying section. Competitively however, you're moving the second strongest top to bottom program from 2022 out of the section into one that already has a dozen more schools in it than any other. Last year, the Knights qualified 17 to state in relays and open events. The only other school with more from Section 2 was Rockvale with 18.
Geographically speaking, I think there are two moves you can make to help with the overall competitive and numerical balance of these sections.
If the implication with the move of Nolensville back to Section 3 is that you want all schools in each county in the same qualifier then I would move the four Wilson County Schools to Section 2. This would be Green Hill, Lebanon, Mt. Juliet, and Wilson Central. For football, these schools already play Cookeville and Warren County in Region 4. This creates competitive continuity sport to sport.
If you don't care about counties and whether or not schools within them are in the same track qualifier, the other possibility could be to move all the Williamson County School east of I-65 over to Section 2. This would be Nolensville (who is already there this season) and Ravenwood and Page.
Other Things I've Heard
One thing a coach mentioned during indoor after seeing the new classification was there are discussions about splitting Section 3 into two sections creating five. As a numbers person, this gives me a little anxiety thinking about how this would be put into practice. "Ok so five sections, three qualifiers, plus 1 at large? or 2 qualifiers and six at large?!" It just doesn't seem practical.
However, this segues into the topic of At-Large bids. Currently, Division I Class AAA is the only classification without them at the state meet. Each of the four Sections gets four qualifiers to make sixteen. I've heard a coach mention changing that to three auto qualifiers with with four at large bids.
For those that don't like the idea of At-Large bids, the other alternative could be adding a round to qualifying in the form of a Super-Sectional type event. Each section will have their qualifying meet as they do already and the top eight from Section 1 will face off against Section 2. The top eight finishers from that meet will advance to state. Section 3 would do the same against Section 4. You'll still have sixteen qualifiers at the state meet from these two Super-Sectional meets.
Ultimately, I think shifting some schools between Sections 2 and 3 is the path of least resistance to avoid other sweeping changes mentioned here at the end. Nevertheless, if you read something you thought was a good idea, reach out to your Athletic Director who can facilitate that up to your TSSAA Representative. If there are any changes made, we'll be sure to report them.