TSSAA State Tournament Is Moving

A-AA, AA, and Girls Classifications Head to Chattanooga's McKenzie Arena for the Next Two Years

There was a big shakeup last week on the venue side of things for the TSSAA State Wrestling Tournament. Starting with the upcoming 2027 season, the Division I individual state tournament, boys and girls both, is leaving the Williamson County AG Center in Franklin and setting up at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga instead. This is a two-year deal, so both the 2027 and 2028 tournaments will be on UTC's home floor.

If your program wrestles A-AA, AA, or Girls Division I, mark it down: February 19-20, 2027, in Chattanooga. This does not affect D2 that tournament stays put at Montgomery Bell Academy, and the dual state championships aren't part of this either; those are still happening at the AG Center in January.

The word is the actual format on the mat won't look much different, outside of trimming down the length of the final day. What will be massively different is the setting itself. The AG Center runs about 4,180 permanent seats, and that only stretches to around 7,680 when they bring in temporary seating for the bigger events. McKenzie Arena seats just under 11,000, which should yield a completely different atmosphere than the AG Center; Chattanooga's hosted the state tournament before, back in 2021, but it's been a long time since a wrestling state championship has been inside McKenzie Arena itself.

For A-AA, AA, and Girls teams, this changes the whole weekend. New travel, new hotel math, and hopefully an even more electric environment when finals night rolls around.