Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Are you wondering how former Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt is still impacting the Volunteers? We’re here to help.
On Friday, the NCAA Committee on Infractions made a ruling in the case regarding Tennessee football and alleged misconduct under former head coach Jeremy Pruitt.
All in all, the NCAA found that Tennessee committed more than 200 unreported violations, including 18 of the Level I variety (the most severe). The Volunteers received a historic $8 million fine from the NCAA as well as sanctions which include scholarship and official visit reductions.
The team must also vacate all 11 wins from the 2019 and 2020 seasons, according to ESPN’s Chris Low.
But that’s not the entire story, and the people most affected by this ruling haven’t been affiliated with the program in several years. Here, we’ll answer all your burning questions about the Pruitt saga.
What happens now to Jeremy Pruitt and the accused former staffers?
The most severe penalties will be felt by Pruitt and other involved staffers, and the NCAA issued a total of seven show-cause penalties against them. Pruitt’s show-cause period will last for six years, and if he’s hired by a college program in that span, he will be suspended for his entire first season.
Given his show-cause penalty, it would be unlikely that we see him make a return to the college coaching ranks before that period passes.
The NCAA: Over three seasons, the Tennessee football program committed 18 Level I violations — encompassing more than 200 individual infractions.
Five years of probation for Tennessee. A six-year show-cause order for Jeremy Pruitt, among these penalties: https://t.co/kxXn63mmJx pic.twitter.com/6RSpb3QFZB
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) July 14, 2023
The harshest penalty went to former assistant director of recruiting Chantryce Boone, who was hit with a 10-year show-cause.
When was Jeremy Pruitt fired?
Pruitt was fired following the 2020 season after an internal investigation resulting from a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA that charged him and his wife with providing more than $60,000 in impermissible benefits, including cash payments to players’ families.
Tennessee fired Jeremy Pruitt for cause and didn't pay his $12.6 million buyout. But they will pay an $8 million fine for all the violations they uncovered anyway.
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) July 14, 2023
Pruitt was fired for cause after the investigation, meaning the school did not pay him his nearly $13 million buyout. He last coached in 2021 as a senior defensive assistant for the New York Giants but was not retained following the season.
Does Tennessee face a bowl ban?
Notably, the Vols managed to avoid a postseason ban, which surely comes as good news to current coach Josh Heupel, whose team enters the 2023 season with high expectations after nearly making a run to the College Football Playoff last fall.
One interesting note regarding the prospect of a bowl ban, per the Knoxville News Sentinel‘s Adam Sparks, is that Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti threatened a legal challenge against any potential postseason ban, arguing the NCAA ruling would supersede Tennessee law.
Can an attorney general really do that?
Maybe!
The honest answer is, we don’t really know.
Skrmetti is referring to an April 2022 amendment to a Tennessee code that prohibits punishing players for violations they didn’t commit as it relates to name, image and likeness. As the theory goes, a bowl ban would inhibit a player’s ability to profit from NIL.
EXCLUSIVE: Just before NCAA hearing, Tennessee activated one more weapon against a bowl ban — the Tennessee attorney general.
Documents show AG Jonathan Skrmetti threatened legal action against NCAA on behalf of UT football players.
Here’s how and why. https://t.co/oss59n5hMm
— Adam Sparks (@AdamSparks) July 16, 2023
Because the NCAA never attempted to enforce a postseason ban, we never got to see this argument made in court. However, in an era where states are routinely passing legislation to protect athletes’ ability to earn money through NIL, this likely won’t be the last time we see laws like this one used to challenge an NCAA ruling.
That's all fine and good, but did Pruitt actually give cash to a recruit's family in a McDonald's bag?
No, but he did use a Chick-Fil-A bag to deliver a $300 payment to a player’s parent in August 2020. And when questioned about his thought process by NCAA officials, his response was… interesting, to say the least.
From the Knoxville News Sentinel:
Pruitt said a player’s mother showed up in the parking lot outside the UT football complex in tears because of financial hardship. She told him she had nowhere else to turn for money to pay her bills.
Pruitt admitted giving her the cash from his car, where he typically stored it.
He told investigators that he felt sorry for her because of the financial strain caused by the COVID shutdown and that UT’s Student Assistance Fund, which is used for student-athletes with hardships, was tapped out.
And Pruitt said his privilege, her race and social unrest were on his mind.
“Then you throw in George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, okay, so you sit there as a white man and you see all of this going on and you can see these kids suffering,” Pruitt said.
“… (It’s) pitiful when you sit in a room and you hear grown men, and I’m talking about our coaches too, when they talk about growing up and the circumstances that they’ve been under, because it’s hard for a white man to understand, right.”
Wait a second, didn't LSU recently self-impose a bowl ban for seemingly lesser violations?
They sure did!
Well, that seems a bit silly. Why cooperate with the NCAA at all?
Great question.
NCAA's harsh sentence on Mizzou makes one thing clear: Never cooperate with the NCAA https://t.co/QHiDdqpZWx pic.twitter.com/r657V6i2ZH
— For The Win (@ForTheWin) February 1, 2019
After all, the NCAA still praised Tennessee for its “exemplary cooperation” during the investigation, sans self-imposed bowl ban.
If I were an athletics director, would you recommend self-imposing a postseason ban?
*Taps sign*
usual reminder to never cooperate with the mall cops (ncaa)
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) June 22, 2023
