Tennessee football fined $8M, reportedly vacating 11 wins for NCAA violations under ex-coach Jeremy Pruitt
Pruitt was fired after the 2020 season following Tennessee's own investigation into NCAA infractions
The NCAA has fined Tennessee $8 million and given former Volunteers coach Jeremy Pruitt a six-year show-cause penalty for what it said were “hundreds” of NCAA violations that occurred under his watch.
The program will also vacate 11 wins from the 2019 and 2020 seasons under Pruitt, school officials said Saturday, per ESPN.
The initial NCAA decision was released Friday and came after the governing body and school had reached an agreement regarding the case. Tennessee fired Pruitt after the 2020 season following its own investigation into violations within the program. That investigation led Tennessee to say it fired Pruitt with cause and contend that it didn’t owe the coach his $13 million buyout.
Tennessee did not receive a bowl ban as part of the NCAA’s consequences.
“This, in light of the institution’s exemplary cooperation and the board’s recent guidance on penalties, the panel declines to prescribe a postseason competition ban for Tennessee,” the NCAA’s decision said. “In lieu of a postseason competition ban, the panel prescribes an enhanced financial penalty that negates $8 million in revenue the institution would otherwise receive in connection with postseason competition in the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Combined with the required core financial penalty and a fee to address ineligible competition by Tennessee football student-athletes in a 2020 bowl game, this will result in a total financial penalty of over $9 million.”
Pruitt was Tennessee’s coach from 2018-20 and had a record of 16-19 with the school. Tennessee’s only bowl appearance in his tenure came in the Gator Bowl after the 2019 season.
The Volunteers hired Josh Heupel to replace Pruitt and went 11-2 in 2022. You can read the NCAA’s entire decision here.
Scheme to provide impermissible benefits to players and recruits
The NCAA alleges a widespread scheme during Pruitt’s tenure to bring recruits to campus on impermissible paid recruiting visits that were not classified as official visits.
“During these visits, members of the football coaching and recruiting staffs arranged and paid for hotel lodging, meals, entertainment and other inducements for the prospects and those who traveled to Knoxville with them,” the NCAA said. “The staff also involved enrolled football student-athletes in the scheme, asking them to act as hosts for the visiting prospects and providing them with cash to offset their hosting expenses. Many of the visits took place during the COVID-19 recruiting dead period, when official and unofficial visits were strictly prohibited to protect the health and safety of prospects, student-athletes and staff.”
Arizona State has also been accused of hosting numerous recruiting visits during the COVID-19 dead period.
The NCAA said Pruitt was directly involved in the scheme. He and his wife Casey were alleged to have made direct payments to recruits in July 2022 in the NCAA’s notice of infractions sent to the school. On Friday, the NCAA said that in one specific case either Pruitt or his wife “provided the prospect’s mother with $6,000 in cash, intended to be a down payment on a new car for her, which is also a violation of NCAA rules and a recruiting inducement.”
The unnamed player played in 23 games for Tennessee and the NCAA said the Pruitt family continued to provide his mother with cash and financial assistance throughout the time he was on the football team.
"After the prospect signed a National Letter of Intent and enrolled at the university, the head coach's wife continued to provide his mother with $500 in cash each month for car payments on at least 25 occasions," the NCAA said. "The head coach's wife also introduced her to a real estate agent, who also was a Tennessee booster, to assist her with finding a rental home in the Knoxville area. When the student-athlete's mother signed her lease, $1,550 was due at signing, and the head coach's wife provided her with $1,600 in cash to pay the deposit. The head coach's wife also arranged for another $1,600 payment to be made to the prospect's mother by assistant coach 1 when she moved into the rental property later that month."
“Exemplary cooperation”
Tennessee avoided harsher penalties like a bowl ban because it cooperated with the NCAA. The school’s self-investigation was a way to fire Pruitt with cause and not pay his buyout. Pruitt’s attorney had previously threatened to sue the school over the buyout, but no legal action appears to have been taken.
The NCAA said Tennessee contacted the governing body for a further investigation after firing Pruitt and other staff members. From the NCAA’s release:
The school notified NCAA enforcement staff of the need for further inquiry and imposed significant corrective measures just a few months into its investigation, including terminating several coaches and staff involved in the violations and implementing scholarship reductions and recruiting restrictions.
"Under the strong leadership of its chancellor, Tennessee acted swiftly, thoroughly and decisively," the panel said in its decision.
During the hearing, the enforcement staff stated that the fully formed record in this case would not have been possible without Tennessee's significant efforts to secure and develop information.
"Tennessee's cooperation throughout the investigation and processing of this case was exemplary by any measure," the panel said. "Although this case involved egregious conduct, (Tennessee's) response to that conduct is the model all institutions should strive to follow."
Before Friday's decision, Tennessee had already self-imposed penalties, including a reduction in available scholarships and a reduction in recruiting visits. Friday’s penalties include a five-year probationary period and a 28-player scholarship reduction over that timeframe. The six-year show-cause Pruitt received means that any school that wants to hire him over the next six years must appeal to the NCAA. Since being fired from Tennessee, Pruitt has not coached in college football.
