Due to a shortage of officials, high school football teams in the state of Tennessee will be required to play one Thursday game per season beginning in 2022. The Board of Control approved the mandate Tuesday. The TSSAA will assign which game for each team will shift to Thursday, but schools can appeal the decision. Also, of note games scheduled for the Thursday before fall break won’t count towards the requirement unless that is the game designated by the TSSAA.
The Board moved to permit the state office to identify approximately 20 games each week that schools would be required to play on Thursday so that all games each week can be satisfactorily covered. The state office must only reschedule one game for each school. This will be in place only for the 2022 season and a proposal for football scheduling in subsequent years will be presented at the next Board meeting. Schools will be informed by mid-March if they have a game that is moved and when that will be.
Tullahoma and Shelbyville have opened the season in the Battle of 41-A on the Thursday of week one since 2017 and are set to do so again in 2022. It’s unknown if that contest would be the TSSAA’s designated Thursday game or if each team would have to play an additional Thursday game.
Other schools in the area such as Coffee and Franklin County have moved games due to inclement weather but few, if any, outside of Tullahoma and Shelbyville have had scheduled Thursday games on a regular basis.
