The saga between Tennessee and the NCAA continues.

Before a report brought the NCAA's investigation into the Tennessee athletics program over name, image and likeness to light, the university took aim at the organization, beginning with University of Tennessee Chancellor Donde Plowman's scathing letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker.

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In it, Plowman called the NCAA "morally wrong" and "intellectually dishonest" in regards to its sudden enforcement of NIL rules. The following day, Tennessee State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, in conjunction with the Commonwealth of Virginia filed a lawsuit against the NCAA while other high-profile state officials, including Gov. Bill Lee, backed the university with public statements.

Tennessee Athletics Director Danny White is the latest to fire back, releasing a length statement of his own on X (formerly Twitter) Thursday afternoon.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: State officials voice support for Tennessee amid NCAA investigation

“The NCAA generally does not comment on infractions cases because there is a rule against it; however, that has not stopped them in the past from leaking information to the media as they did this week about us,” White said in the statement. “Their actions made this ill-conceived investigation public and forced us to defend ourselves.

“It is clear that the NCAA staff does not understand what is happening at the campus level all over the country in the NIL space. After reviewing thousands of Tennessee coach and personnel phone records, NCAA investigators didn’t find a single NIL violation, so they moved the goalpost to fit a predetermined outcome. They are stating that the nebulous, contradictory NIL guidelines (written by the NCAA not the membership) don’t matter and applying the old booster bylaws to collectives. If that’s the case, then 100% of the major programs in college athletics have significant violations. This is obviously silly and not productive, as is blaming membership whenever they are challenged. We need to be spending out time and energy on solutions to better organize college athletics in the NIL era – something that NCAA leadership failed to do back in 2021. Student-athletes, prospective student-athletes, coaches, and administrators across the country deserve better, and I refuse to allow the NCAA to irrationally use Tennessee as an example for their own agenda.”

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Donde Plowman email: NCAA 'morally wrong' in Tennessee NIL investigation

Tennessee continues to makes its stance clear as a potential showdown between the university and the NCAA looms.

The NCAA has only recently flexed its muscle over NIL with investigations at Florida State and Florida being reported in January, but Tennessee's public response could carry the next phase of NIL into unprecedented territory.

The response hasn't been limited to Tennessee administrators and state politicians, either.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel reported Thursday that current Tennessee senior offensive lineman Jackson Lampley filed a declaration in the state's NCAA suit in Eastern District of Tennessee federal court.

According to the News-Sentinel, the six-page statement summarizes Lampley's experiences as a student-athlete and his experience with NIL while stating his willingness to testify in the lawsuit.

"Almost every recruit I meet with asks first and foremost about NIL," Lampley said in the court filing, cited in the News-Sentinel. "But they also ask about all the same factors I considered in the pre-NIL world. Just like finances are a factor for every other college student's decision for where to enroll, how much weight a recruit puts on financial costs and opportunities ought to be up to them, as simply part of finding the right fit for a given athlete's circumstances. In my observation, NIL has become one of the top factors that current recruits consider when determining where to go to school."

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