PullinGuard

For transfers they did. Which is all that 'territory' refers to. The term is unrelated to kids who do not transfer. So, if someone already in HS moves from Nashville to Swanson Drive in Fayetteville, they cannot be immediately eligibile at LCHS any longer. The county doesn't pick up kids for LCHS in town. Your last sentence is interesting, too. You're right, it's always been assumed you have to sit if you move from FHS to LCHS or vice versa, regardless of any change in address. No longer. If the county doesn't pick up in town, they lose Fayetteville proper as territory. FHS has ONLY Fayetteville proper as territory. So, a kid in town who attends FHS can now move a mile out of town with immediate eligibility at LCHS. And vice versa. An LCHS kid in the county can move inside the city limits and be immediately eligible at FHS. It's suddenly very easy to be in one territory and out of the other and then have the opposite when you move in or out of town. Couldn't do that when everyone thought all of LC was both school's territory. Woops. That is, unless the county school board starts picking kids up by bus in town. Then, they get that territory back for transfers. Under that scenario, a transfer from outside the county once could go either place with immediate eligibility. And in-county transfers would have to sit a year again. Going to be a mess if they don't clarify the rule.

Should have been made aware by whom, though, is the question? Director of Schools believed it exactly as they did. As far as I know, she's been in charge since FHS was created and worked through all of this with the TSSAA. Not a soul in the system understood this, and seemingly, neither did Bernard Childress in September. I have no idea how any of them could have understood this before October.

It will be a mess. It's a big can of worms. Lincoln County just lost all of Fayetteville proper as territory, for instance. No one has ever imagined that.

'OR' would make no sense. That would not allow bus routes to carve out zones in zoned systems, which is likely the intent. If it just said 'OR', no zone defined by bus routes in a multi-school system would mean anything at all under the rules. You could transfer to any school in a system and be immediately eligible, irrespective of zones as defined by bus routes (and counter to school board intent, which seems to be the TSSAA intent). Even if there are 5 high schools in a zoned system and the school board intends zones to be strictly dictated by bus routes, a transfer could be immediately eligible anywhere. Bus routes have decided territory and therefore eligibility in zoned systems innumerable times. To my knowledge, they've never been used to impair the territory for a single HS system to something less than the local board of education's explicit intention before.

You don't disagree with me. No one anywhere would risk throwing away the playoffs if they thought there was an issue. Maybe he would have played against Huntland, but wouldn't in easy wins if anyone suspected an issue. That's not logical.

Which included the exact and correct address. I've seen Bernard Childress refer to their internal system for typing in an address to check it. That differentiates this situation from most. Usually, in cases like this, it turns out the address was wrong or invalid, etc.

I think that makes it clear no one thought there was any issue. I understand he was hurt early in the season and didn't play a lot or have a ton of impact after a knee injury. Still played some. If the school or family imagined in the slightest that there was any question, I don't think he would have played after the injury.

I have no idea why they preferred FHS, but they did. The two schools are very different and there could be any number of good reasons. They would have moved into Fayetteville proper, but it was everyone's understanding that this was no issue up to and including when Childress made his ruling in September. I don't think one soul involved in the school system or the family thought there was any issue at all until Oct 15th. Especially after the TSSAA ruled him eligible based on the correct address.

And that means nothing unless you are willing to make assumptions with no guidance from the rules. If you think it does, it's no wonder that you believe what you do. If a school has no buses, does that mean it has no territory? The answer is yes according to this logic. Even though that's clearly an absurdity. Is Fayetteville proper outside of LCHS's territory? It never has been, but it is now. They don't pick up in town and never have.

It mentions both. Nowhere does it say you have to satisfy both. That's the root of the problem - they need to clarify the intent. I believe 'bus routes' are there to clarify the school boards intent when there are multiple schools in a zoned system. That's logical, considering everything. 'Bus routes' have been used in that manner hundreds of times. Never in this manner, to my knowledge.

There are good reasons and good logic to support the idea that the TSSAA misapplied their own rules. But you'd have to invest more time than anyone with sense would want to at this point. For just a taste, consider that Bernard Childress ruled him eligible based on the correct address and two of the BOC agreed (today) that Menees' ruling was wrong. If the Executive Director and two of the BOC disagree with it, it's easy to see that it wasn't a trivial situation, in my opinion.

Yes. If someone moves to Fayetteville proper from say, Nashville, they could only attend FHS and be immediately eligible if they are past (or already in) ninth grade, not LCHS. Unless they add bus pickup in town to LCHS to get around it. Until now, everyone has believed they had a choice where to go and be immediately eligible as long as you came from out of county. You can still pick either for the start of ninth grade and be eligible.

That is Fayetteville's explicit policy regarding geographic boundaries, both written and illustrated/confirmed with 50 years of history. If this ruling holds, Lincoln County loses Fayetteville proper are territory. They don't pick up with buses in town. Of course, they could decide to change that now in order to keep Fayetteville as territory.

I could imagine it. Whether Fayetteville is right on the rules and logic or not, the TSSAA will need to do that for sure. If they now feel they were wrong on the territory matter, they could approve the hardship, then clarify the bus route language over the winter and thereby achieve what may be the just, correct, and logical outcome, save face, and also not open a big can of worms with this bus route ruling. For instance, If LCHS doesn't pick up kids in town (I think they don't), they lose Fayetteville proper as territory if this ruling holds without clarification. No one has ever believed that is or should be the case, imo.

I could easily imagine it given the initial clearance under normal rules. Hardships are much harder to consider than an address only ordinarily, and if Childress says he's good to go under the normal transfer rules, I don't think anyone would have any interest in considering the hardship (and lots of reasons not to). From either side. The hardship application would serve no purpose if he's ruled good without it - that's my point. So it would be no surprise if it were filed from the start but then never considered. Again, 100% a theory. I know nothing at all about it.

I know nothing at all about it. But the tweet says 'had', and that implies it was done sometime in the past. Could've been in the background all along, I don't know. Even if it existed from day one, it would've been rendered moot by the original 'all-clear' letter, and therefore never considered until now. Just a theory. I assume you couldn't file it now, but don't know.

FYI, Wilson is the Director of Schools for Fayetteville. I gather that Morson is the coach.

I will - thx.

If there's a published ruling, I'll take a look. But no, I'm not there. Seriously, I have no direct connection. But football and logic interest me, so here I am. I did live there way more years ago than I'd like to admit, so have some understanding of key details that some others might not.

I believe that all games affected are scheduled for 7pm Saturday, but can be played at any earlier time (up to Friday at 7) with mutual agreement between the schools.

I have no idea.

My final thoughts on the matter prior to the appeal. The intent of the territory definition and rule seem clear. The TSSAA gives full authority over area served to the local school board. That's inarguable, in my opinion. The territory rule mentions both 'geographic boundaries and bus routes' as defining the territory, without giving any guidance as to which governs if there is a conflict. Menees' ruling gives complete deference to bus routes and ignores geographic boundaries entirely. Now, FHS and LCHS are in two entirely separate systems - this is important. There is no authority anywhere that gives the right to define area served to anyone other than the individual school boards. Since 1978, there have been no 'zones' for high schools in Lincoln County established by anyone, anywhere (beyond Menees). I believe that the 'bus route' specification is intended to define which high school is to be attended in a multi-high school system that has buses. The bus that comes by your house obviously shows what the school board's intent is if the system has multiple schools. And the TSSAA rules clearly intend to defer to the school board to decide which students are meant to attend which school. Menees' ruling depends 100% on bus routes and ignores 'geographic boundaries' entirely. What could justify that, when both are mentioned? Not only are they both mentioned, but 'geographic boundaries' is mentioned first. That's obviously not alphabetical order. Absent any other guidance, this order for the specifications implies that the geographic boundary definition is more important than the bus routes specification. You might like to argue that point, but it is not arguable that there is no remote indication that bus routes are to be considered superior. I believe bus routes are meant to be used to fully understand the school boards intent when there are multiple high schools and zones in a system - that is both logical and of clear and common practical use. I think it's also meant to provide as much convenience as possible for a student and family. I believe that Menees' ruling incorrectly conflates FHS and LCHS as if they are a part of a single system. If that were the case, the consideration of the two system's bus routes would reasonably define the intention of a theoretical single school board. I think it is clear that, instead, the two Boards are in clear competition and not cooperation with each other (I and many others can assure you of this). If the two Boards had 'agreed' on where each would run buses, then I'd agree with Menees. They did not and do not plan anything together, including bus routes. In the end, the TSSAA clearly intends that the local school board be the only authority that defines their territory. A competing school board is not granted this authority. There is no prohibition or regulation of overlapping school systems with respect to area served. It is 100% clear that the Fayetteville School Board explicitly defines their geographic area to be all of Lincoln County. The bus routes are merely reflective of economic realities and in 50 years have never had anything at all to do with where the Fayetteville School Board expects their students to come from. The TSSAA rules seem to be clearly intended to defer entirely to the local school boards intent with regard to territory. In this case, that intent is clear.

No, it isn’t. That’s because something could conceivably change and they don’t want to show incorrect information. Also, playoff possibilities are a big problem as long as this isn’t resolved, since there would be possibilities with FHS and without - just too confusing to list. Sensible that those aren’t included. You are apparently contending Region 5 will not participate in the playoffs. I don’t believe that at all. They have announced nothing at all to indicate that. Why not? We’ll see. Both the TSSAA’s rules and the law says that they can’t just leave region 5 out. So, if the rules and the law matter, then that isn’t happening.

I’ve read the rules extensively and have not seen the residence note you cite. Please post that portion of the rules.

They do not. They explicitly say the school is open to all residents of Lincoln County - that clearly shows their intentions relative to geography are separate from bus routes. *** Fayetteville High School is a public high school in the Fayetteville City School District serving students in grades 9th through 12th grade. Admission is open to all Lincoln County residents. Transportation is provided within city limits for students. *** It's a little hard for me to imagine that bus routes should be considered more important than geographic boundaries and the clear and undeniable history of where the school's students come from. It's absolutely a fact that the system has drawn a substantial number students from all over the county for 40+ years. Just hard to imagine that bus routes, which can obviously be decided based on pure economics (and which consequently may or may not exist at all) are logically more important than the historical footprint of where students have lived. Still, more information is needed for me to make a reasoned judgment on the matter. It's not trivial.