After completing its investigation into the Tennessee football program, the NCAA found that the Volunteers committed more than 200 violations over a three-year span. Despite that, Tennessee will not have to serve a postseason ban.
The NCAA’s Committee on Infractions announced its findings against Tennessee on Friday, determining that Tennessee committed a host of recruiting violations including paying for unofficial visits for 29 prospects from September 2018 to November 2020. Tennessee also made direct payments to the mothers of two prospects who went on to play for the Volunteers. (The full list of violations can be found in the Infractions Committee’s resolution report.)
The investigation found that the university failed to monitor the football program. Despite that, Tennessee will not be forced to serve a postseason ban – as programs typically have had to following similar investigations in the past – because the NCAA’s new constitution adopted in January 2022 states “to the greatest extent possible that penalties imposed for infractions do not punish programs or student-athletes not involved nor implicated in infractions.” The NCAA also gave Tennessee credit for “exemplary cooperation” with the investigation.
Instead of a postseason ban, Tennessee will pay an $8 million fine “that is equivalent to the financial impact the school would have faced if it missed the postseason during the 2023 and 2024 seasons.” Tennessee will also pay an additional $5,000 fine plus 3% of the football program’s budget and a fine to address its ineligible competition in the 2020 Gator Bowl; those penalties could bring Tennessee’s total fine above $9 million.
Tennessee has been placed on probation for five years and will have its scholarships reduced by a total of 28 over that five-year period. Tennessee’s total official visits over that period have also been reduced by 36, while it will lose a total of 40 weeks of unofficial visits; it will be forced to prohibit unofficial visits for 10 home games, including at least four SEC games, over the next five years.
Tennessee will also be required to vacate its records from all games in which ineligible players participated. The investigation found that 16 Tennessee football players were ineligible due to impermissible benefits from the program; it has not yet been specified how many wins will be vacated, though it appears to include at least the entirety of the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Former Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt, who was fired in January 2021 after the recruiting violations were found in an internal investigation, received a six-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA. He would be forced to serve a one-year suspension if he is hired by an NCAA school before the end of that show-cause period.
