District Guidelines:
Classification is only set to determine how teams will advance to the postseason. There is no requirement for schools to play all other schools in their district during the regular season. The schools in each district must determine their number one team to advance to the region tournament by any method the district selects. District tournaments are allowed, but not required. Prior to the start of the season in that sport, district coaches and administrators should have a meeting involving all schools in a district to determine how the district's top team will be determined. If a district tournament is held and the schools in the district cannot agree on a seeding method for the tournament, the
following seeding criteria should be used:
1-winning percentage against schools in the district
2-winning percentage against schools in the same classification
3-overall winning percentage
For larger districts, TSSAA has no objection to the district subdividing for regular season scheduling and having the winners of each side meet in the district final match.
Weather Policy:
In the event school closings from weather prevent the entire district tournament from being
completed by the deadline, districts can choose to have teams play more than one game in a day.
If that is not possible, then only the top 4 teams from the above seeding criteria will continue to
participate in order to determine which teams advance to the region. If the tournament is not
able to be held at all, the above seeding criteria will be used to advance teams.
Region & Sectional Guidelines for Team Sports:
Once the top team in each district is determined, teams will advance through the region and section based on the following brackets for 2025-2026. If there are byes in the bracket, they will rotate each year.
Volleyball -
Class A & AA District champion must be determined before Thursday, October 2
Girls Soccer -
Class A District champion must be determined before Monday, September 29
Class AA District champion must be determined before Thursday, October 2
Basketball -
Class A District champion must be determined by Monday, February 2
Class AA District champion must be determined by Monday, February 2
Class AAA District champion must be determined by Thursday, February 5
Baseball, Softball, Boys' Soccer -
Class A District champion must be determined by Monday, May 4
Class AA District champion must be determined by Thursday, May 7
Postseason Brackets -
Postseason Guidelines for Individual Sports:
Cross Country -
Class A, AA, and AAA section meets must be completed by Saturday, September 27. Regions may choose to first have region meets to advance runners to the section meet. The number of team and individual qualifiers to state from sectionals for each classification can be found at the link below.
Track & Field -
Track & Field region meets will be conducted to determine who advances to the sectional meet. The state office will work to assign a meet director and date for each section meet, and then region meets must be planned before that date. Class A, AA, and AAA section meets must be completed by Saturday, May 9. The number of qualifiers to sectionals from regions and to state from sectionals for each classification can be found at the link below.
Wrestling -
TBD
Postseason Qualifiers -