Details on what’s been described as a bump in the road by some, an appalling number of violations, despite great efforts to conceal them by Chancellor Donde Plowman, were released on Friday as Tennessee received its notice of allegations from the NCAA.
In total, 18 level one infractions for repeated violations of paying for unofficial recruiting visits including transportation, lodging, food and entertainment. Then there’s also payment of cash to recruits families, as well as student-athletes.
A number of those violations occurred during the NCAA’s COVID dead period where Tennessee had prospects on campus.
Volquest has been told that no current student-athlete has an eligibility issues as a result of the notice of allegations.
The year long investigation by the University discovered over 200 individual violations. It includes 12 former staff members in the football program under Jeremy Pruitt’s leadership. It also uncovered Pruitt’s wife’s involvement as well.
Two individuals involved Brian Neidermeyer and Shelton Felton also alleged provided false information in interviews conducted in January of 2021.
It’s certainly not a pretty report, but there is an important page of sunshine in it where the NCAA praised Tennessee for their handling of the case.
Mitigating factors. [NCAA Bylaw 19.9.4]
(1) Prompt acknowledgement of the violation, acceptance of responsibility and imposition of meaningful corrective measures and/or penalties. [NCAA Bylaw 19.9.4-(b)]
Once initially alerted to potential issues related to impermissible benefits, the institution conducted an initial investigation. During the investigation, the institution detected potential violations and disclosed to the enforcement staff the potential issues and need for further inquiry. During the first two months of the
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institution's investigation related to potential issues within the football program, it uncovered potential significant violations and immediately imposed meaningful corrective actions.
(2) Affirmative steps to expedite final resolution of the matter. [NCAA Bylaw 19.9.4- (c)] The institution took immediate steps to fully investigate potential violations at the beginning of its investigation, including mirror-imaging multiple football staff members' cellular phones, which led to voluminous amounts of information that substantiated the violations alleged. Those initial steps greatly expedited the ability to formulate full facts within the investigation. (3) An established history of self-reporting Level III violations. [NCAA Bylaw 19.9.4- (d)] The institution has self-reported 46 Level III violations over the previous five years, approximately nine violations each year. (4) Exemplary cooperation. [NCAA Bylaw 19.9.4-(f)] The actions taken by the institution during the investigation should be the standard for any institutional inquiries into potential violations. Throughout the investigation the institution exhibited exemplary cooperation in multiple ways. Once the institution's chancellor was alerted to allegations of potential violations within the football program, the institution took swift action to investigate the allegations and substantiated various violations related to Allegation No. 1. The institution then immediately disclosed the potential violations to the enforcement staff and continued to investigate potential violative conduct, which substantiated various other violations related to Allegation Nos. 2-9. In doing so, the institution: (i) Conducted the initial investigation into potential violations and continued to keep the enforcement staff apprised of information it developed, identifying critical individuals, documents and other information highly relevant to the violations; (ii) Expended substantial resources, including dedicating time and human capital to conduct over 100 interviews, immediately mirror-imaging phones of select potential involved individuals and continuing to identify additional individuals to interview who might possess relevant information; and
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(iii) Continued to investigate potential allegations, even after initially substantiating the initial violations included in Allegation No. 1, including securing cooperation from numerous third-party individuals to further the investigation.
These actions by the institution led to the fully-formed record that would not be possible without the significant actions taken by the institution.
Then there is the major lack of allegation and that is there’s no charge of lack of institutional control. There’s failure to monitor, but no lack of institutional control which is in terms of punishment.
And that is the final piece to the puzzle for Tennessee. What is the level of punishment? Show causes are coming for Jeremy Pruitt, Brian Neidermeyer, Shelton Felton and others. A fine is likely coming for the University as are vacated wins. By the way there is more level one violations than wins for Pruitt’s brief career as a head coach.
Tennessee has no interest in a bowl ban and the NCAA seems to be moving away from that punishment as well. Tennessee has already self imposed a reduction of 12 scholarships last season.
The University has 90 days to respond to the letter of allegations and could request an expedited hearing.
