The NCAA has fined Tennessee $8 million, placed the football program on five years’ probation and restricted scholarships and off-season visits, the league announced Friday — but the Vols avoided a bowl ban for committing “hundreds of violations” under Former head coach Jeremy Pruitt, who has been given a six-year show order.
Tennessee was awarded 28 scholarships, but the program actually imposed a penalty of 18 scholarships. Tennessee must also vacate all wins and records involving the 16 sanctioned players.
Tennessee committed 18 Level 1 violations, most of them related to illegal payments to players and a scheme in which recruits and their families are paid for informal visits, which is not permitted, according to the NCAA. Tennessee recruiters concealed the activities from their compliance officers. The total amount of money in violations was about $60,000.
“The committee was particularly troubled by the culture in the football program. For several years the compliance environment in that program was clearly contrary to everything this voluntary association expects of member schools,” said Kay Norton, the chief hearing officer for the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
Norton added that young employees of the program have expressed reluctance to come forward about the abuse, fearing reprisals.
During the COVID-19 shutdown, Tennessee also arranged nine total visits for six prospects and their families when not all recruiting activity was permitted. Tennessee coaches paid for these visits and “occasionally” required players on the team to act as hosts for the visiting recruits.
Pruitt’s six-year offer includes a mandatory one-year suspension if appointed to any sports-related position.
The offer order is the most severe sanction a coach can receive from the NCAA, which requires any school that hires them while the order is in place to appear before a committee every six months and show why the coach is bound by NCAA rules. Schools are not prohibited from hiring them, but it can be very detrimental to their future jobs.
Former Defensive Coordinator Derek Ansley, now the Defensive Coordinator with the Los Angeles Chargers, received a two-year offer order. The NCAA imposed a five-year offer case on former recruiting director Bethany Gunn, and a 10-year offer case on assistant hiring manager Chantress Boone. Still not working college football.
The NCAA also upheld previously self-imposed bidding orders of five years for former assistant coach Brian Niedermayer, four years for former assistant Shelton Felton, four years for former director of player personnel Drew Hughes and three years for former student assistant Michael Magness.
Pruitt’s wife, Casey Pruitt, who also made improper payments to players and previously worked according to other schools, was not sanctioned.
Tennessee is also prohibited from communicating with recruits for 28 total weeks spread out over five years, and has been banned from hosting casual visitors for 40 weeks over five years. Must cut 36 official visits over five years and cut 120 assessment days during the five-year probationary period.
A staff member of the sporting department alerted councilor Dundee Plowman in November 2020 of the potential breaches after overhearing a conversation about paying players. Tennessee hired Bond, Schoeneck & King, an outside law firm based in Kansas, to investigate the program later that month.
After initially discovering dozens of violations, the university fired Pruitt in January 2021. Pruitt has not worked in college or professional football since serving as a senior defensive assistant with the New York Giants in 2021.
The Illegal Commission praised Tennessee’s cooperation in the case.
“Tennessee’s cooperation throughout the investigation and handling of this case was by all accounts exemplary,” the commission said in a statement. “Although this case involved outrageous behavior, (Tennessee’s) response to that behavior is the model that all institutions should strive to follow.”
Norton said that if Tennessee had not cooperated as fully as it did, it might have received a postseason ban.
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