Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman receives ovation at basketball game after response to NCAA investigation

After news broke of an investigation into alleged NIL violations at Tennessee, a letter from university chancellor Donde Plowman to president Charlie Baker came out. She staunchly defended the university in her three-page response to the inquiry and said “the NCAA is failing.”

Tennessee fans celebrated Plowman answer to the NCAA, and they gave her quite the ovation at Tuesday night’s basketball game.

Plowman handed out an honorary game ball prior to Tennessee’s game against South Carolina and participated in a pregame ceremony. When her name was announced, the cheers rang down from the fans in attendance at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Read Donde Plowman’s full letter to NCAA president Charlie Baker

Tennessee Chancellor @DondePlowman gets plenty of love from Big Orange Nation before the game! pic.twitter.com/uaTflb3RBj

— Austin Price (@AustinPriceless) January 30, 2024

Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde first reported the inquiry, which involves “major” alleged violations across several programs. In an appearance later Tuesday on The Paul Finebaum Show, Forde indicated Tennessee was going to fight back against the NCAA in a huge way.

“As a source put it to me, someone that has some familiarity with this case, ‘Prepare for a firefight of epic proportions between the NCAA and the University [of Tennessee] and the Spyre Group, the collective that runs the NIL efforts for Tennessee,” Forde said Tuesday during The Paul Finebaum Show.

“This has been described to me as quote-unquote ‘major’ and quote-unquote ‘big’ so the scope of the violations could be considerable, and the level of violations that are alleged is expected to be Level I and II, which is the most significant kind and yields the biggest penalties. And in response, Tennessee is ready to fight fire with fire.”

The New York Times later reported part of the investigation involves the recruitment of Nico Iamaleava. During the process, an NIL collective allegedly paid for Iamaleava to come to campus on a private jet. According to NCAA rules, NIL collectives cannot be involved in the recruiting process.

The NCAA’s investigation into Tennessee is the third major inquiry into alleged NIL violations this month. On Jan. 11, Florida State received multiple major penalties as a result of NIL-related violations, including a three-game suspension and two-year show cause against offensive coordinator Alex Atkins.

Then, just over a week later, The Tampa Bay Times’ Matt Baker reported Florida was at the center of an NCAA investigation. The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy later reported it centered on the recruitment of Jaden Rashada, who ultimately got a release from his National Letter of Intent and chose to attend Arizona State this past season.