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 six 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 tier, roster, schedule or bracket |
| Roster classification and bracket | A published formula | 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 tier or bracket, rule on a participant's eligibility, hear an appeal, or exclude any team from the postseason.
Registration count in each age band determines how many teams a program must field and at which levels. It is a table, not a petition. There is no waiver to request and no favour to ask.
Four things are counted from data the league already collects: how many players sit above the weight line, how many are in the older year of the band, how many played at a higher tier before, and how many seasons of football your squad has between them. Clear the limits and your declaration is guaranteed for the season — it cannot be reviewed, reclassified, or made the basis of any postseason restriction by anyone.
At season's end every team is rated in points from the games it actually played. A team that turned out to belong a tier up plays for that tier's championship. Teams move up and never down, so there is nothing to gain by losing on purpose — and no team is ever left out of the postseason. Playing below your qualifying level remains available for legitimate reasons; the team is simply not entered in that level's championship.
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, tiering, 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.