Tennessee fan rents crane, hangs massive Vols flag from it outside courthouse holding NCAA hearing

At least one Tennessee fan is voicing his support for the Volunteers ahead of their court hearing on Tuesday.

As the program prepares to defend itself due to their fight with the NCAA regarding its NIL rules, a flag featuring the Volunteers logo has been prominently displayed outside of the courthouse, hanging from a crane.

Check out a video of the matter, shared to X (formerly known as Twitter) by Volquest’s Austin Price, which should fire up any Volunteers fan ahead of the ruling.

pic.twitter.com/h5ov172ng7

— Austin Price (@AustinPriceless) February 13, 2024

“That is a giant, Tennessee Power T flag hanging from a rental crane, that someone parked across the street from the federal courthouse,” On3’s Andy Staples said, regarding the video. “Adam Sparks, the Knoxville News Sentinel beat writer, he took a photo of that, and Adam had a funny line in his story that came out on Monday night, saying fans are talking about tailgating or checkering the courtroom. That might actually help the NCAA’s case, because they’ll say it’s going to be chaos if these rules are not allowed to continue. Well, that might encourage the judge that it would be somewhat chaotic.

“But we don’t exactly know what’s going to happen. The judge has said that he thinks that the NCAA’s going to lose this case. He said in straight out, in denying the temporary restringing order, which is a small victory for the NCAA. We’ll see if he grants the injunction, which would put aside the NIL rules, regarding recruiting, until the end of the trial, where the judge thinks the NCAA’s going to lose. So we’ll see.”

Moreover, we’ll finally have some answers regarding the NCAA’s investigation into the university regarding alleged NIL violations related to recruiting. The inquiry is reportedly into multiple programs, and has been met with a fierce response from Tennessee officials, including a letter from chancellor Donde Plowman to NCAA president Charlie Baker.

Part of the investigation involves the recruitment of Nico Iamaleava. The New York Times reported 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.

Alas, there’s a litany of details regarding the case for both sides, and it’ll be up to the decision-makers to find a ruling. Nevertheless, Tennessee faithful are coming through for their program, voicing their support ahead of Tuesday’s revelation.

Paul Finebaum calls Tennessee case a ‘non-starter’ for NCAA

As the list of legal challenges against the NCAA grows, one high-profile case is going through the system in Tennessee. The state’s attorney general, along with Virginia’s, filed a suit challenging the organization’s NIL rules – and while a temporary restraining order was denied, a preliminary injunction hearing is coming up next week.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey discussed the case with Paul Finebaum earlier last week, pointing out the list of cases through the NCAA’s enforcement process “distracts us from solving the big problems” on The Paul Finebaum Show. Tennessee isn’t the only SEC school under NCAA investigation for alleged NIL violations. Florida is also at the center of an inquiry related to the recruitment of Jaden Rashada.

Those comments were similar to the ones Sankey made in a conversation with Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger. With that in mind, Finebaum told On3’s Andy Staples the Tennessee case likely won’t amount to much.

“Anyone who believes that Tennessee is going to spend a day in NCAA jail doesn’t understand what’s going on here,” Finebaum said on Andy Staples On3. “This is a non-starter for the NCAA, and I think that’s really what Sankey was trying to say. I think Greg would have always preferred to handle things behind the scenes.

“… The funny thing was all these statements came out, Andy, while the ADs were meeting last week – including the Tennessee AD – in New Orleans.”

Alas, time will tell what the end result it, but we know how Paul Finebaum feels about the case involving Tennessee.