This page is the substance. Everyone signing on as a founding program should be able to read this end-to-end, disagree with parts of it in writing, and know that once the founding programs commit, this is what gets adopted.
| Decision | Who decides | Majority |
|---|---|---|
| Rules, budget, fees, membership | Board of Directors — one vote per member program | Two-thirds, instructed by each program's own board |
| Day-to-day administration | Executive Committee — four elected officers | No power over pairing, flight, schedule or bracket |
| Pairings, flights and brackets | A published formula applied to results | No vote exists |
| Protests, appeals, ethics, discipline | Appeal Panel — three directors drawn by lot from uninvolved programs | Written reasons published within five days |
Rule 2.23. The Board of Directors runs this association — and it may not determine any team's pairing, flight or bracket, rule on a participant's eligibility, hear an appeal, or exclude any team from the postseason.
Every team in an age group enters a single pool under one weight limit. A program may field any number of teams. Its president and head coach sign a Strength Declaration ranking each team, which counts toward the Preseason Index that sets Week 1 pairings and half of Week 2 — and nothing after that.
Weeks 1 to 4 pair teams by the Index, then by record and rating, Swiss-style. On Realignment Sunday a published Placement Rating — built from wins, strength of schedule, capped margin and the Coaches’ Poll — splits the age group into the Cup and Shield flights. Any program may move a team up; none may move down.
In Week 8 the last Cup team plays the first Shield team (two such games in age groups of ten or more); the winner plays for the Cup. Three automatic triggers catch sandbagging, and the penalty falls on the head coach, the president and the program — never on the players’ postseason. Every team plays in a bracket for the MTFA Cup or the MTFA Shield.
Walk through a complete mock season on the season page, or read every rule in the rulebook, Draft v4.1.
Every vote of every body is taken by roll call and published with the minutes within seventy-two hours. Secret ballots are prohibited for eligibility, placement, discipline and the postseason.
Charter, three years of minutes with roll calls and recusals, financials and Forms 990 are published. Records are available on request within ten days. No purpose statement is required, and records cannot be refused because the requester is in a dispute with MTFA.
Cheer is not a subordinate programme with lesser process. It is governed by the same notice, the same recorded votes, the same appeal panel, and the same rule that placement is arithmetic.
MTFA is a Tennessee public benefit nonprofit corporation with members, formed to serve young people rather than the organisations that run it. It is seeking recognition of exemption under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. That recognition has not been granted yet, and we will not describe it as though it has.