The Tennessee Titans could challenge Tennessee Tech’s goal to host the TSSAA football championships when Tucker Stadium upgrades are complete.
A TSSAA official said the Titans have interest in the championships when the new stadium opens. Tennessee Tech Athletic Director Mark Wilson said the news is not a surprise. Wilson said he thinks Tech would do a much better job by providing a personalized experience for student athletes as it did in the previous years it hosted those championships.
“For the city of Nashville, state high school football championships is actually a small event in terms of attendance, in terms of a crowd, and in terms of economic impact,” Wilson said. “Because it’s not like having the NFL draft or having an NFL playoff game or having a final four or things of that nature.”
Wilson said the process to host the championships is highly competitive and other organizations such as Vanderbilt will likely be part of the conversation as well. Wilson said the new Tucker Stadium will be a major benefit for Tech’s next attempt to be selected as the championship venue.
“We will have a facility that certainly they would want to be a part of,” Wilson said. “But they’ve got to make decisions that are best for TSSAA and high school football and certainly we hope they take a look at us and like what we do. Because I think there’s not a better community that will roll out the red carpet for high school student athletes in the state of Tennessee.”
Wilson said Tech has not had much recent discussion with TSSAA about the matter since the new Tucker Stadium is still in progress. Wilson said TSSAA is interested in the new facility and continues to monitor the situation.
“Certainly there’s no commitment from Cookeville or Tennessee Tech to TSSAA and there’s no commitment from TSSAA to us,” Wilson said. “So it’s just ongoing conversations.”
Wilson said athletic officials need to be creative to find what’s best for high school football in Tennessee in the coming years.
“If that’s a partnership where there’s multiple communities involved, whether it even be Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Cookeville, we would love to be in the mix for anything that we can host,” Wilson said.
Tennessee Tech officials talked openly with County Commissioners about the desire to bring back the championships when they asked the county to spend money on a Tucker Stadium upgrade.