Advertisement

How Tennessee punched out NCAA's teeth and dunked on a pitiful Jeremy Pruitt | Toppmeyer

Blake Toppmeyer, USA TODAY NETWORK
·5 min read
12

Take a bow, Donde Plowman. Breathe easy, Josh Heupel. Fire up a GoFundMe drive to recoup that institutional fine, Danny White.

Tennessee received its NCAA verdict Friday after a yearslong investigation into a sweeping recruiting scandal, and it’s good news for the Vols. The headline: Former coach Jeremy Pruitt and his associates got hammered with career-crippling penalties, while the Vols avoided a dreaded bowl ban.

That’s a win for UT.

Tennessee shoved a Big Orange Fist through the few remaining teeth the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions possessed, while landing a knockout blow on Pruitt.

Sure, the NCAA slapped the Vols with some measely sanctions, but a postseason ban is the penalty institutions long feared in cases of this magnitude. In years past, institutions that cooperated with NCAA probes could not feel assured of avoiding the infractions committee’s wrath. This verdict shows it truly is a new day for the NCAA, which traded the infractions committee’s sword for cooperation.

If a sloppy impermissible benefits scheme involving 18 highest level violations doesn’t result in a postseason ban, what would? Institutions that fail to monitor cheaters now have it made in the shade, so long as they fire the coach and serve his head on a platter to the NCAA.

Exclusive coverage: Tennessee, Jeremy Pruitt learn NCAA penalties

Tennessee received an assist from a pricy, high-powered law firm, plus a new NCAA Constitution and a Division I Board of Directors that aims to tip the scales of justice for cooperating institutions away from postseason penalties. This helped the Vols skate past a bowl ban, the one penalty they dreaded and declined to self-impose.

The Vols got hit with probation, some additional scholarship restrictions beyond what UT self-imposed and a fine of at least $8 million. But, spared from a postseason ban, they’re cruising on with a winning coach and an innovative AD who’ve made their predecessors seem like a couple of yokels.

I wouldn’t put it past White, UT’s athletics director who doubles as a fundraiser extraordinaire, to tap into the Vols’ passionate fan base to have that fine recovered by the season opener. Anyway, the fine is a discount compared to the $12.6 million buyout Tennessee would have owed Pruitt if it had fired its losing coach without cause.

By putting Pruitt on a pike, the Vols successfully unloaded a coach who was steering the program into a ditch, and they redirected severance costs from their losing coach’s pocket and into the NCAA’s.

The NCAA concluded that Pruitt, his wife and members of his staff pedaled more than $60,000 worth of impermissible benefits and inducements to numerous recruits, their family members and Vols football players.

The football program committed a whopping 18 Level I violations among more than 200 infractions.

Sounds bad, eh? But not surprising. Plowman, UT’s chancellor, described the scope of malfeasance as “stunning” when she announced Pruitt’s for-cause firing in January 2021.

But, the verdict is only really bad for Pruitt and some of his former staffers. Pruitt received a six-year show-cause penalty that will shutter his already stagnated career. Multiple staffers he employed also received multiyear penalties.

The infractions committee described the conduct of Pruitt and his minions to be some of the “most egregious, intentional and blatant disregard of fundamental NCAA rules” ever uncovered.

I feel a small amount of pity for Pruitt, though.

Don’t misunderstand, Pruitt deserved his for-cause firing. He and his staff recklessly stomped on NCAA rules, while producing a poor on-field product. Coaches who lose while cheating don’t last long.

Pruitt admitted to the NCAA that he made a few, small rule-breaking cash handouts, but he otherwise mounted a defense similar to the one that largely worked for UT: That he was in the dark about cheating carried out by bad actors beneath him.

The NCAA didn’t buy that from Pruitt, and neither do I. The infractions committee found that not only did Pruitt fail to promote compliance or monitor his staff, he and his wife also provided “substantial amounts” of cash to recruits, athletes and their family members.

And yet, in a profession where coaches who commit more shameful acts receive second chances, posthaste, I find it a tad unforgiving for Pruitt to meet such a harsh end for handing out cash.

Pruitt foolishly entrusted dimwitted staffers to carry out this shoddy scheme, and then instead of providing himself with plausible deniability, he directly involved himself. His ouster and the past 2½ years he’s spent in college coaching purgatory were just desserts. Still, I’m not seeing the scandal of the century revealed, here. Rather, I see an appalling amount of sloppiness exposing college football’s familiar, seedy underbelly before the days of NIL.

Pruitt joined his former boss, Phillip Fulmer, as victims of the Peter Principle.

Fulmer, though, bagged a seven-figure retirement severance and bumbled off, free from NCAA penalty or any direct allegations of wrongdoing.

Fulmer deserves an Oscar for his performance as a witless athletics director. He either feigned or truly maintained a cluelessness to the cheating occurring under his nose, while he otherwise focused on offensive line performance and weightlifting data.

Although the NCAA and UT never implicated Fulmer, the investigation’s findings nonetheless smear the legacy of one of Tennessee athletics’ longtime pillars.

A WITLESS PHILLIP FULMER: Vols legend considered replacing Jeremy Pruitt with 'Alex French,' whoever that is

INVESTIGATION VERDICT: Unpacking NCAA's verdict on Tennessee, Jeremy Pruitt — and why Vols can move on

INSIDE THE SCANDAL: 12 text messages in Tennessee NCAA recruiting scandal that buried Jeremy Pruitt

Pruitt’s legacy is scorched. He’ll forever be known as the coach who lost at an embarrassing clip even while he and his staff displayed “an unwillingness to even pretend to follow the rules,” as Kay Norton, the NCAA infractions committee’s chief hearing officer, described it Friday.

Pruitt turned the Vols into a mockery, but Tennessee got the last laugh.

Free from buyout, free from a postseason ban and past a messy scandal, the Vols roar ahead with a more competent coach and athletics director, while the NCAA’s infractions committee is left holding its teeth.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or access exclusive columns via the SEC Unfiltered.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Tennessee punched out NCAA's teeth and dunked on pitiful Jeremy Pruitt