Tennessee football avoids bowl ban as NCAA hammers Jeremy Pruitt for recruiting scandal

Tennessee's aggressive self-investigation pays off as football program avoids bowl ban. Fired coach Jeremy Pruitt and some of his staff were hit with significant and long-term coaching bans. The university will pay upwards of $8 million in fines to the NCAA. Restrictions on scholarships and recruiting are manageable and won't hamstring the program under coach Josh Heupel. The NCAA put University of Tennessee football on probation for five years, but the program avoided a postseason ban. Former coach Jeremy Pruitt, fired in 2021, was hit with a six-year show-cause penalty in the verdict of the yearslong NCAA infractions case that found more than 200 violations of NCAA rules by at least a dozen staff members that went unreported in a two-year period. Pruitt's penalty for his part in the 18 highest-level violations committed during his three-season tenure as UT coach will keep him out of college coaching for the foreseeable future. A show-cause penalty means a university cannot hire a coach or recruiter without NCAA approval during the length of the ban. Pruitt's show-cause includes a 100% suspension for the first year of employment should an NCAA school hire in him in any athletics position. Former UT assistant coach Derrick Ansley, now an NFL defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Chargers, received a two-year show-cause order. Recruiting director Bethany Gunn got a five-year show-cause penalty, and assistant recruiting director Chantryce Boone got a 10-year show-cause. Pruitt's wife, Casey Pruitt, did not receive a penalty for her part in the violations. She previously worked in NCAA compliance jobs at three other schools. Assistant coach Brian Niedermeyer (five years), assistant coach Shelton Felton (four), director of player personnel Drew Hughes (four) and student assistant Michael Magness (three) had previously agreed to show-cause penalties, according to records obtained by Knox News through an open records request. And, beginning in the 2021 season, UT disassociated from an unnamed booster. What NCAA penalties did Tennessee receive? As part of the five-year NCAAA probation, UT must: Pay fines, including $8 million, 50% of gross revenue paid to SEC for UT's participation in the 2020 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl under Pruitt, $5,000 plus 3% of football budget Vacate all wins and individual records in any game in which 16 individual sanctioned players participated. Those games will be announced later. Cut 28 scholarships from its roster over five years. UT has already self-imposed 16 scholarships cuts over the past two seasons. Cease communication with recruits for 28 weeks spread over five years. End unofficial visits by recruits for 40 weeks over five years. Cut 36 official visits by recruits over five years. Cut 120 evaluation days over five years. UT had already self-imposed and absorbed a portion of the penalties over the past two years, so the effect should be manageable. All parties have the option to appeal the decision, but that process could take months. NCAA case could've ended long ago, documents show UT scored a notable victory by avoiding a postseason ban, which would've mostly punished players who never played for Pruitt. Now the Vols, who won the Orange Bowl and went 11-2 last season, can move forward under third-year coach Josh Heupel unencumbered by Pruitt's scandal. Most of the penalties come as no surprise to UT. In October 2021, UT (the defendant) and the NCAA enforcement staff (prosecutor) agreed on a plea bargain for its portion of the case, according to documents obtained by Knox News through an open records request. The agreement included no postseason ban. But the NCAA Committee on Infractions (the judge and jury, so to speak) denied the deal and opted to drag out the process. It wanted to go to a hearing and consider a postseason ban for the sake of precedent. Ultimately, the penalties that the NCAA revealed were similar to the ones UT negotiated with NCAA enforcement staff in the original plea bargain almost two years ago. UT hoped its cooperation with NCAA investigators and and a new NCAA constitution designed to encourage universities to cooperate with investigations would protect it from a postseason ban, and that strategy paid off. The NCAA found that UT failed to monitor the football program, the only part of its enforcement effort that targeted the university rather than individual coaching and recruiting staff. But that distinction, and UT's significant cooperation with the investigation, was enough to avoid a postseason ban. In a hearing in April in Cincinnati, UT Chancellor Donde Plowman told the NCAA Committee on Infractions that UT’s 2023 roster consisted of 122 players, including 91 who enrolled after Pruitt was fired. Eight players on the 2023 roster involved in violations were cleared by the NCAA of any intentional wrongdoing. That hearing was closed to media and the public. Plowman’s remarks to the committee were shared in an internal email obtained by Knox News through an open records request. Why NCAA didn't give Tennessee a postseason ban A postseason ban would’ve gone against the guidance of the new NCAA constitution, which went into effect on Aug. 1, 2022. It encourages leniency toward programs that root out cheating themselves and discourages punishing current athletes for violations committed by former coaches and athletes. In the new approach, cooperating schools are supposed to get lighter penalties and bad actors are supposed to get harsher ones. UT considered that in its strategy to aggressively aid the NCAA investigation. Once it learned about allegations of violations through a tip, UT moved quickly to fire Pruitt and assistant coaches and recruiting staff it said committed violations, and self-reported the violations it could confirm. Plowman then hired a high-powered law firm to conduct an independent investigation, and turned over to the NCAA the violations uncovered by the lawyers. The university spent more than $1.6 million to investigate itself and share the results with the NCAA. “These actions by (UT) led to the fully-formed record that would not be possible without the significant actions taken by the institution,” the NCAA said in its initial report in July 2022. In 2021, UT cut 12 scholarships as a self-imposed penalty in Heupel’s first season, documents show. And it trimmed a few more scholarships in 2022. In 2021, UT played with about 70 scholarship players, well under the maximum 85 allotted by the NCAA. But seven super seniors didn’t count in that total. Super seniors are players whose eligibility was extended one season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, UT's roster suffered beyond scholarship cuts. There were 38 players who transferred from UT between December 2020, shortly before Pruitt was fired, and the 2021 season. How NCAA case finally reached conclusion It’s been a long road to get to this decision. A person tipped off Plowman's office about alleged violations in November 2020, and UT immediately started an internal investigation and alerted the NCAA. In January 2021, UT fired Pruitt for cause, along with additional assistant coaches and recruiting staff members. The NCAA released its notice of allegations in July 2022. UT and others responded in November 2022. The NCAA alleged Level 1 violations, the most serious category, were committed by Pruitt and his wife, Casey; assistant coaches Ansley, Niedermeyer and Felton; recruiting staff members Boone, Gunn and Hughes; former student assistant Magness; and an unnamed booster. In February, Felton, Hughes, Magness and Niedermeyer accepted multi-year show-cause penalties. UT, Pruitt and Felton could not reach a negotiated resolution, so all faced an NCAA Committee on Infractions panel in a hearing in Cincinnati on April 19-20. Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. Twitter @AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.