NCAA official explains show-cause for former Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt, financial penalty for football program

Following the revelation of stiff penalties for The University of Tennessee‘s football program and former head coach Jeremy Pruitt, the NCAA is explaining their reasoning.

Penalties for Tennessee include paying a hefty fine of $8 million, but the Volunteers avoided any kind of postseason ban. As for Pruitt, the former leader of the program was hit with a six year show-cause order.

“Should the head coach become employed in an athletically related position at an NCAA school during that show-cause order, he shall be subject to a suspension from 100% of the first season of his employment,” the NCAA revealed.

During a media conference held on Friday afternoon, Kay Norton, the Chief Hearing Officer on the case, explained their reasoning for the conclusion they came to.

“We always look at previous cases that are somewhat similar, although no cases are identical,” Norton explained, regarding Pruitt’s show-cause order. “So the six years fell within the range of Level 1 aggravated, head coach responsibilities, that we’ve imposed in the past.”

Continuing, Norton explained the show-cause order in great detail, elaborating on the fact that they wanted no doubt to be left.

“One of the principles that the association has adopted in April and going forward is — included emphasizing individual responsibility, and liability,” added Norton. “So the COI has made some recommendations of how suspensions ought to be done in a consistent manner going forward, and one of those things was to specify things like, 100% suspension given the egregious nature of these particular violations, and also some of the things — the ambiguity that may have been created in the past about, ‘Well we’ll suspend the coach for every game-day, but not for all of the days leading up to it and after,’ so we wanted to be clear about what the effect of the show-cause order would be.”

As for Tennessee’s financial penalty, the explanation was given, “That is a standard penalty in the penalty matrix, and in addition there’s a third element in the penalty that is going to be calculated and tacked on to the $8 million, and the percentage of the budget, related to the school’s participation in the 2020 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. There was revenue that came to the institution, and three ineligible student-athletes participated in that game. So the revenue from that, that was distributed to the school, will also be tacked on to the penalty.”

Moreover, the penalties stemmed from an original report from the NCAA, alleging and detailing 18 NCAA violations, including an allegation of $60,000 in cash or gifts given to football recruits or players by Jeremy Pruitt, his wife, numerous coaches, staff and boosters. 

All 18 of the violations are Level I violations. Level I is the most severe infraction on the scale from one through four.

The NCAA claimed that Pruitt and staff gave players cash and gifts throughout his tenure in Knoxville, which spanned from 2018 to 2021. The report also details that his wife, Casey Pruitt, paid more than $15,000 in rent and car payments for a Tennessee player and his mother. That arrangement reportedly went on for two and a half years.

“During the head coach’s tenure, he and other members of his staff acted with general and blatant disregard for rules compliance,” a Division I Committee on Infractions panel said regarding Pruitt, via the NCAA.

For the full list of sanctions levied against the Volunteers and Pruitt in addition to the fine straight from the NCAA, you can click here.

More on Jeremy Pruitt, NCAA sanctions

Moreover, the NCAA noted in their original report that Tennessee provided “exemplary cooperation” with their investigation, working with them to find a resolution. The allegations do not include lack of institutional control. That charge would have had serious implications for the future of the program.

Evidently, their cooperation helped their cause in the end, as the NCAA noted they took “into consideration the board’s guidance and the school’s cooperation.”

“Under the strong leadership of its chancellor, Tennessee acted swiftly, thoroughly and decisively,” the panel said in its decision, via the NCAA. “… Tennessee’s cooperation throughout the investigation and processing of this case was exemplary by any measure.

“Although this case involved egregious conduct, (Tennessee’s) response to that conduct is the model all institutions should strive to follow.”

Additionally, former Tennessee inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer, outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton, director of player personnel Drew Hughes and student assistant coach Michael Magness were also handed three to five-year show-cause penalties as a result of a negotiated resolution, which were announced prior. 

A show-cause penalty means a school will have to present reasons to the NCAA why it wants to hire one of them to its staff during that time period.