At Any Cost

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association high school football championship games kicked off yesterday in Chattanooga. On display at Finley Stadium will be the state’s best teams and playmakers from the 2024 high school football season. Among all the storylines surrounding the matchups, one, in particular, stands out as quite possibly the most ridiculous ploy to win a state title I have ever seen in all my years of following high school football in the state.

Milan High School, located about 100 miles northeast of Memphis in Gibson County, is pretty much your quintessential small town Tennessee high school. With a population of about eight thousand, Milan (MY-lunn) is a place where everybody not only knows their neighbors, but have deep generational connections. Their parents and grandparents went to school together and just about everyone is blood related somewhere down the line. In a remote agricultural town like this, the football team is a crucial pillar of the community. H. G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights depicts a town like this very well. There’s a purity at the pre-collegiate level that the college and professional games lack.

Playing their first season in 1922 under head coach Ray Oliver, Milan is also one of the oldest teams in Tennessee. Their rivalry with nearby Peabody High School is one of longest running in the state. With four state championships, twenty-five district titles and over one hundred years of tradition, they are right up there with Maryville as one of the most storied and respected programs… But the school’s latest effort to remain competitive has the potential to undermine its storied legacy.

On November 22nd, during the week of the 3rd round of the TSSAA playoffs, a thread appeared on CoachT.com detailing how Milan was allegedly able to change classifications via the creation of a new vocational program called “Milan High School Academy”.

There are six classifications in Tennessee high school football. The idea behind classes is to keep schools competitive with other schools of a similar size, thus producing a relatively fair playing field for programs come playoff time. A school can move up or down the classifications list due to changes in student enrollment. TSSAA refreshes the requirements every two to three years to keep up with population changes throughout the state.

According to a post by user “LittleVioletGadget,” Milan administrators have allegedly used the creation of this new vocational program within the school district to artificially lower their enrollment numbers, allowing it to compete in 2A rather than the 3A group they have traditionally been in:

“In 2020, the Milan High School football team suffered yet another defeat at the hands of Alcoa in the 3A state championship.  For most schools, this would have been a motivating challenge – an opportunity to rise to the occasion.  But Milan’s administration decided to take a different path.  Rather than face the possibility of another rematch with the state powerhouse, they sought a way to avoid Alcoa altogether.  Their solution?  A reclassification that would take them out of 3A and into 4A football, effectively dodging one of the most formidable teams in Tennessee high school football.”

3A has traditionally been dominated by Alcoa who in 2023 won their 9^th straight state title and their 22^nd overall. After a string of losses in the state title game throughout the late 2000s, Milan was successfully granted a request to move up to 4A. After two unsuccessful years in this new class and with the addition of Alcoa to the 4A classification starting in 2025, Milan administrators allegedly crafted a plan to move back down. The post continues:

“In 2021, in response to a disappointing season in 4A, Milan’s administration implemented a new strategy: they launched the so-called “Milan High School Academy.” The academy was presented as a cutting-edge educational initiative, promising unique opportunities for students.  But in reality, the “academy” was nothing more than a clever ruse to manipulate enrollment numbers and gain an unfair advantage in the TSSAA classification process.

Despite its lofty name, the Milan High School Academy was essentially a designation for underperforming students who did not participate in athletics. It wasn’t a separate building, nor did it come with additional resources or programs. Academy students attended the same classes as their peers, earned the same diplomas, and received no additional support beyond what was available to all Milan students. The only real distinction?  Academy students were barred from participating in sports.

So what was the purpose of the “academy”? The answer is simple: it was an attempt to artificially lower the enrollment numbers at Milan High School, thereby allowing the school to qualify for a lower athletic classification. By designating certain students as part of the “academy” and excluding them from athletics, Milan could reduce its reported enrollment figures and secure a spot in 2A, rather than 3A, which was the school’s rightful classification.

According to its website, Milan High School Academy appears to be a vocational career program that is a part of the College, Career & Technical Education program created by the governor’s office.

Its address, 7060 East Van Hook St., is the same address as Milan High School. CTE programs exist in just about every Tennessee county and are normally a special program for upperclassmen within the school that allows kids to graduate with job skills and obtain work with local area employers right after graduation. 

Currently, there are twenty-six students in Milan High School Academy. They still attend class at Milan High School with the other students, but their enrollment doesn’t count towards the total enrollment of MHS.

TSSAA’s 2021 Classification counted 568 students in Milan’s first year as a 4A school in athletics. With the creation of the new academy, MHS was able to get under the threshold of 533 to move down to 2A, a group they had not been in since 2008. There is a competitive advantage to being the largest school in a lower class instead of the smallest school in a higher one.

According to comments in the CoachT thread the TSSAA control board was alerted to this and provided guidance to the school:

In March 2024, the TSSAA Board of Control was alerted to Milan’s questionable tactics.  However, rather than addressing the issue, the Board took an unprecedented step that further exacerbated the situation. In an unexpected move, the Board voted to use May enrollment figures—rather than the traditional August numbers—when determining classifications for the upcoming cycle.

This decision, made in August 2024, was not included in the official agenda, and the affected schools were given no opportunity to voice their concerns before the vote. In fact, the vote was passed with a 12-0 margin, despite the fact that four board members who represented private schools had no stake in the decision, as their schools’ enrollment numbers were still going to be submitted in August.

The result of this vote? Milan, whose enrollment figures were artificially deflated by the creation of the Academy, remained in 2A football, despite its historical placement in 3A. This move was a direct result of Milan’s manipulation of enrollment numbers, and it allowed the school to avoid tougher competition in the coming years, including the powerhouse team, Alcoa, which has since reclassified to 4A.

By now you’re probably thinking, “Porter, it’s just high school football. What’s the big deal?” Well, for starters, when Milan was allowed to move down to 2A, it forced some other schools to move up to avoid having an imbalance in the classification totals. These schools are now faced with an unfair situation.

Second, the TSSAA control board contains a member on staff in the Milan school district. Former baseball coach at MHS and current Supervisor of Federal Programs Greg Scott currently sits on the board. If there was indeed a vote, then why was he not asked to recuse himself?

Lastly, if Milan wins Saturday against Marion County to claim their 5^th state title in school history, I guarantee you every school district in Tennessee will start looking into how they can use the CTE program to reduce their enrollment to achieve similar ends. The executive directors at TSSAA could potentially have created a massive headache here. Gamesmanship among schools has gone on for as long as scholastic sports have been around, but this would be the first time a school has allegedly used a state program as a loophole to gain competitive advantage. 

In the coming weeks, as we learn more about what lead up to this decision by the TSSAA, the reputation of the Milan program—and the town at large—could be unfairly put in jeopardy as evidenced by the outrage this has caused online. There is a risk of student-athletes as well as supporters of the Bulldogs being labeled cheaters by competing schools and by the statewide football community. That, in my humble opinion, would be a shame to see happen to such a storied program.