A boxing term might help to assess the status of the University of Tennessee’s ongoing NCAA investigation into the Volunteers’ football program under former coach Jeremy Pruitt: a split-decision.
Multiple former UT athletics employees at the center of the probe – including a pair of former on-field assistant coaches – reached agreement with the NCAA in the final quarter of 2022 for penalties stemming from the investigation into Pruitt’s tenure atop the Vols’ program.
Though a portion of those agreements occurred well before the end of the 2022 calendar year, the NCAA just released an update into its litigation in the UT investigation.
Those penalties agreed to by certain parties – including former personnel director Drew Hughes, as well as former on-field defensive assistants Shelton Felton and Brian Niedermeyer -- have not been formalized, but the terms among some of the alleged involved parties have been mutually agreed to and recommended to be adopted, sources told FootballScoop. Sports Illustrated reported that the fourth person in the probe to have negotiated through the penalty phase is former recruiting student-assistant Michael Magness.
Each individual who has agreed to the proposed penalties is expected to receive a multi-year “show-cause” penalty, per sources.
As FootballScoop’s Zach Barnett previously outlined, an NCAA “show-cause penalty” is: a penalty requiring the employer of a penalized coach – regardless of sport -- to appear before a committee every six months to illustrate how and why said coach has stayed in line with the NCAA rulebook. It does not say a coach must be fired, or that he or she can not be rehired by another school.
Per sources with direct knowledge, meanwhile, Pruitt has not negotiated any sanctions for himself in the case and has, in fact, fought to contest against any “show-cause” penalties the NCAA might wish to impose on the coach who rose to acclaim as a defensive coordinator at Alabama, Florida State and Georgia and who then steered Tennessee’s program into an iceberg with his three-year run on Rocky Top.
The probe has now stretched on for more than two years, and it resulted in wholesale changes to UT athletics – from the abrupt “retirement” of Phillip Fulmer to the school’s razing of Pruitt’s former program.
“A Committee on Infractions panel has preliminarily approved the agreement,” the NCAA said Tuesday in its release. “The school and other individuals involved in the case have contested either the alleged violations, the application of certain penalties, or both, and that portion of the case will be considered by the Committee on Infractions during a hearing, after which the committee will release its full decision.”
The NCAA added, “The agreed-upon violations occurred over several academic years and involved cash payments to recruits and their families, impermissible recruiting contacts during a COVID dead period, and impermissible recruiting inducements during unofficial visits.”
Sources have told FootballScoop that both Pruitt and UT have not agreed to any, or all, penalties, respectively.
Per sources, Pruitt -- who worked under famed Alabama coach Nick Saban, as well as Jimbo Fisher -- has contended that he did not have direct knowledge of the recruiting infractions that indeed the NCAA proved unfolded directly in his program and which numbered nearly 20 charged misdeeds by the NCAA in its investigation into the Vols.
Though information gathered in the probe showed Pruitt’s wife, Casey, had allegedly been complicit in the Vols’ illegal activities, Jeremy Pruitt has steadfastly denied any knowledge of the rules violations and, per sources, sought instead to portray the violations as the independent actions of his assistant coaches and support staff.
However, across the past decade, the NCAA has worked diligently to amend its bylaws and show that an individual head coach’s professed ignorance atop his or her program is not a sufficient argument for lack of culpability within a program alleged to have committed serious violations.
UT has been charged with 18 Level I violations by the NCAA in its probe into Pruitt’s former program, and the NCAA has specifically outlined its expectations of head coaches when a probe is exploring the most serious --- Level I – accusations.
Per the NCAA:
Head Coach Responsibility
“If there is a potential Level I or II violation in a sport program, the head coach is presumed responsible for the violation pursuant to Bylaw 11.1.1.1, and the enforcement staff will gather information regarding whether the head coach promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitored the activities of his or her staff.
“In determining whether the head coach promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitored the activities of his or her staff, the enforcement staff will consider the head coach's overall communications, monitoring efforts and activities that demonstrate his or her commitment to compliance as well as the specific circumstances surrounding the alleged underlying violation(s).”
When Tennessee fired Pruitt in mid-January 2021, UT Chancellor Dr. Donde Plowman took direct aim at the actions of the only football coach Fulmer hired.
“While the investigation is continuing, the information presented to us indicates serious violations of NCAA rules,” Plowman said some 25 months ago. “They occurred and that these serious infractions warrant immediate action.
“For now, I can tell you this: The information provided today indicates a significant number of serious NCAA rules violations. While we have no choice but to continue to ask for your patience while both (UT) and the NCAA investigate, the personnel actions we are announcing today are an indication of the gravity of what we have discovered.”
Plowman made those comments when she announced the dismissal of nearly all of Pruitt’s entire staff, as well as the abrupt end to Fulmer’s career, though UT continued to pay Fulmer a nearly seven-figure sum after his exit from Rocky Top.
Because UT fired Pruitt “with cause,” he did not receive any of the several millions of dollars that he would have been owed by UT had Pruitt simply been fired for on-field performance.
Sources have told FootballScoop that part of the expected penalties for UT as an institution include “vacating wins under Pruitt during the alleged timeframe of the allegations; multiple years of probation – believed to be a four-year term; scholarship reductions to be implemented over a period of multiple years, as well as recruiting restrictions to limit both visitors to campus and coaches’ allowed visits on the road during evaluation periods, as well as deduction of revenues and bowl money (monies).” UT was set to lose a specified fine in the thousands of dollars and then also to be penalized a percentage of budget.
Additionally, a source with direct knowledge told FootballScoop that UT had been advised to “disassociate itself” with a pair of boosters alleged to have helped facilitate impermissible benefits.
UT, under the rejuvenated leadership of Athletics Director Dr. Danny White, has staunchly opposed any type of postseason ban for its football program as fallout from the probe into Pruitt’s tenure; that element is among the items that sources said would be resolved as the NCAA and UT works toward complete resolution in the case.