Brentwood Academy players celebrate after their win over CPA in the Division II-AAA semifinals on November 21, 2025. CASEY GOWER
The TSSAA Board of Control approved to continue a minimum of 12 teams in Division II-AAA football and allowed the other two private-school classes to be halved based on enrollment in its latest meeting on March 4.
It eliminates the success formula that elevated CPA from DII-AA to the top private-school classification for the 2025-29 cycle.
TSSAA Executive Director Mark Reeves said the format was the “least disruptive” of four options presented to the board in recent sessions. Two involved the success formula – in Class AAA and across all DII classes – and the other choice divided private-school football equally on enrollment in the three classifications.
“This was a bit unexpected for us, coming into the second year, or years three and four of a four-year cycle, to have to make an adjustment,” Reeves said. “But we did so because of the new bylaw.
“Since the adjustment has to be made, what’s the least disruptive? Well, that looks closest to what we had before.”
Representatives from CPA advocated for a consistent classification model through the private-school ranks after the Lions were raised to DII-AAA due in part to the introduced success formula in 2024. That altered TSSAA bylaws and prompted the association to change its current model.
CPA played in the state semifinals but finished 4-9 last fall following 14-0 and 13-1 seasons that led to DII-AA championships. The school still sits at 515 students, good for the ninth-largest enrollment in Division II and 11 students past the Class AA cutoff. They could theoretically drop back down in the next contract cycle.
Only two DII-AAA teams and nine total private schools preferred the approved classification method, according to a survey shared with the Board of Control in January. Twenty-seven of the 44 teams picked an option that stopped the success formula.
Over 40 percent of Division II wanted to divide equally by enrollment and eliminate the success formula. Reeves said that presented a challenge because it would place an unprecedented 16 teams in Class AAA.
“Historically, you’ve not had more than 12 teams in that AAA division,” he said, dating back to its inception in 2018. “And since Division II started, my understanding is in the upper division of football you’ve never had more than 12 (teams).
“Going back to when the board charged our staff to look at maybe something a little different, the charge was more to accommodate those schools who were not competitive at all at the AAA level. And so the numbers would say that you’re going to be much more likely to have more examples of those schools, that they were trying to avoid, if you split them in thirds and had 16 in the class than if you had a minimum number.”
