TSSAA Board of Control votes down Shelbyville appeal to allow them in Class 5A football playoffs

Shelbyville will remain out of the TSSAA Class 5A football playoffs.

The high school association's Board of Control voted 7-5 to uphold executive director Bernard Childress' decision to place the football program on restrictive probation the next two years at a special-called virtual meeting Monday.

The vote allows the TSSAA to now finalize its Class 5A playoff pairings after leaving one quadrant blank when it released the brackets on Friday night. 

That quadrant now has the following matchups:

• Lincoln County plays at Beech
• Hillsboro plays at Page
• Columbia plays at Gallatin
• Hillwood plays at Summit

FIRST ROUND SCHEDULE:See the TSSAA football 2020 playoff brackets, first round schedule

Shelbyville provided video evidence that school principal Tim Harwell said he received after the TSSAA issued its decision to place both Shelbyville and Franklin County on restrictive probation after what game officials described as a "brawl" that led to four Franklin County players being ejected and three from Shelbyville. 

Franklin County placed itself on restrictive probation, which makes teams ineligible for the playoffs, for the rest of this season. The TSSAA extended that through the 2021 season.

Harwell said the video showed the incident lasted about 42 seconds and questioned if it filled the definition of a brawl.

Board member Greg McCullough said the video didn't show enough detail of what happened that night.

"The video is from the other team's side and I'm trying to really see the Shelbyville side and it's really hard to see," said McCullough, who is the principal at Memphis Central. "It just comes down to what (board member) Jody (Wright) said. There is just not a lot of evidence there to show what we really want to see here.

"You have to go back to the official's report and it makes it sounds far more difficult than what we see. That's why I use the term brawl even though I've seen much worse."

The TSSAA's decision allows for both Shelbyville and Franklin County to appeal the second year of restrictive probation and provide information on what the program has done to encourage better sportsmanship amongst it's programs.

Shelbyville finished 7-2 in first-year coach Josh Puckett's first season after replacing Justin Palmer. The Eagles finished second in the region and would have hosted a playoff game Friday had it not been removed from postseason play.

Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.