CHATTANOOGA — Alcoa coach Brian Nix has seen a lot of TSSAA football state championship trophies. But this year’s hardware looked a little different after the Tornadoes defeated Pearl-Cohn 47-27 in the Class 4A final to win their 11th straight championship. The TSSAA rolled out a redesigned trophy after more than two decades without change. The new trophy’s sleek, black color and modern touches contrasted with the more traditional previous look. “I’m just glad we got one, man. I don’t care if they paint it pink, as long as we win it,” Nix said. “You know, it looks a little different. I like the old ones, but when you get a state championship trophy, you don’t worry about what it looks like.”More: TSSAA football playoffs championships scores for 2025More: Page seniors deliver first TSSAA football state championship after 4 years of heartbreakThe TSSAA is issuing redesigned state, district and region championship trophies — as well as Mr. Football and Mr. and Miss Basketball — for all sports this year. More than 2,000 postseason awards will be distributed, TSSAA executive director Mark Reeves said. The trophy decision was made by TSSAA staff and did not require Board of Control approval or member school input. The TSSAA contracted the same trophy company and the cost difference for the new design was marginal, Reeves said. The change coincides with the TSSAA rebranding its logo.“Just going with the black colors to kind of modernize things. That was the main point with the rebrand and everything,” Reeves said. “We hadn’t had a new trophy design in 20-plus years for football and basketball.” The previous TSSAA football trophy design consisted of a tiered wooden foundation with a plaque on the front, four football figurines on each side and the gold or silver ball on top. That design made the trophy hard to grip, Reeves said, and it wasn’t uncommon for trophies to break on field during celebrations. Sometimes the figurines got snapped off. “We had a couple that broke in presentations before Mr. Football and (Mr. and Miss) Basketball,” Reeves said. “We wanted to have a design that was more solid, durable and modernized to some degree.”The new football trophy design is a little taller, with a black-painted wooden neck leading up to the gold or silver ball. It also has the new TSSAA rebranded logo in red and blue — setting it apart from the older version which didn’t have color besides metallics and wood. The change was big enough to draw some negative reactions on social media. .oembed-frame {width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;border:0;}@TSSAA some things don’t need changing. Not sure why anyone thought that a change was needed, but the new State Championship trophy looks like it was ordered from TEMU. pic.twitter.com/jKmPRY9BQ9— Buddy Garrity (@BuddyGarrityGBR) December 6, 2025Reeves said he received positive feedback about the fall championship trophies. After nearly three days in Chattanooga, he hadn’t heard much about the football trophies either way. One thing the TSSAA made sure to keep were the gold and silver footballs. That was non-negotiable. “Probably 15 or 20 years ago, there was a discussion about the gold balls, the price was going up. The silver was actually going up more,” Reeves said. “This was back when the association was not in nearly as good of financial shape. There was a discussion to look at something different, but the perception was, ‘Whatever we do, let’s not touch those gold or silver balls.’ If we were ever going to do something like that, we’d definitely run it by the Board. But we’re not going to do that. That’s a big deal for our schools.” Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, @tpalmateer83.He also contributes to The Tennessean’s high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg. Subscribe to The Bootleg here.This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA football state championship trophies are redesigned