Why Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman responded harshly to NCAA amid NIL investigation

Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman made quite a statement in her letter to NCAA president Charlie Baker, obtained by Volquest. The Volunteers are facing an investigation into alleged NIL violations, and Plowman staunchly defended the university while also pointing out issues with the NCAA’s guidelines.

To Volquest’s Brent Hubbs, it’s not much of a surprise that Plowman responded the way she did. During her time as chancellor, she makes her feelings abundantly clear on key issues — as evidenced by her decision not to settle with former head football coach Jeremy Pruitt.

That situation could be an indication of how strong Plowman will stand against the NCAA amid the investigation, which Sports Illustrated reported to be into multiple programs and “major” violations.

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

“Here’s what we know about [Plowman] in her time at Tennessee: When she draws a line in the sand, she doesn’t move off that sand line very quickly,” Hubbs told Andy Staples on On3 Roundtable. “There are a lot of people who wanted her and would have been very happy if she would have reached a settlement with Jeremy Pruitt and just kind of let that deal go away. But she was emphatic at that press conference, she would never settle with him. She never wavered on it, and two years later until the end of that resolution in that case, she never wavered on that point. So she’s pretty stern.”

In her letter, Plowman said “the NCAA is failing” and called out the “vague and contradictory ‘guidance'” around NIL after the NCAA instituted an interim policy in 2021. She also said she wanted to meet with Baker in-person, but the request was denied.

Now, Plowman is the focal point of an interesting spot. Hubbs interpreted the letter not necessarily as a “threat” of legal action, but an indication Tennessee would be willing to go to court if the situation warrants it. What happens next in the long-term could have a major impact on the college sports landscape.

In the short-term, though, a response from the NCAA could be the next piece of “news.”

“Is Donde Plowman on an island by herself in the NIL world? Or do people jump on the island with her and kind of follow that lead point?” Hubbs said. “I had someone tell me today that there’s somewhere between 12 and 20 collectives that the NCAA has been looking hard at over the course of the last year or so because they have concerns about how things are done, they wonder how some of these things are done. Some of those collectives are pretty loud, pretty vocal, and they’ve been looking into those situations. And we’ll see if anything else comes of it at other schools, and we’ll obviously see what the NCAA’s next move is.

“I think from a news standpoint, from a hard concrete news point, you know where Tennessee stands as of this evening. It’s very clear. So the question now becomes, where does the NCAA go next? With a continuing on investigation? Do they have enough that they’re ready for a letter of allegations? Does that come next? I think the NCAA’s response is the next news cycle. I think there’ll be some talk, some rhetoric, some posturing. But I think the next hard news thing in this story is when does a letter of allegations come from the NCAA back to the University of Tennessee?”

Nico Iamleava’s landmark NIL deal drawing attention amid NCAA investigation into Tennessee

Tennessee has faced questions about NIL before. Last year, Kansas transfer baseball player Maui Ahuna served a suspension to start the year and Vols head coach Tony Vitello was suspended for a series due to alleged tampering violations. However, Hubbs said, there still hasn’t been any documentation about the case closing.

A key part of the latest investigation, though, is the recruitment of Nico Iamaleava. The former five-star recruit signed a landmark NIL deal upon his arrival in Knoxville, and it became On3’s most ambitious NIL deal of 2022. The Athletic since reported it’s worth up to $8 million.

After Sports Illustrated’s initial report about the NCAA’s investigation into Tennessee, The New York Times reported Iamaleava’s recruitment is part of the inquiry. According to the report, he flew on a private jet and the flight was paid for by one of the university’s NIL collectives — a violation of NCAA rules if it was during the recruiting process.

Based on Plowman’s response to the NCAA, though, Hubbs said that’s an indication about how she feels about how Tennessee handled such a notable recruitment.

“Look, Nico has been high profile from day one, Andy. … That one was was high-profile from day one, from the moment he committed,” Hubbs said. “There’s obviously been a lot of stuff written and a lot of talk about his NIL deal, what it’s worth, what it’s not worth and all those types of things that were out there initially. You knew that one it was going to be under great scrutiny, and because of that, you would think that Tennessee and Tennessee’s collective was by the book with everything. And obviously, the chancellor feels very confident in where things stand and her understanding of where everything is at with that.

“But given what’s in the New York Times this afternoon about use of the private plane and everything else, it certainly feels like this one centers largely around that recruitment and that NIL deal, which was really the first significant NIL deal that was out there in the recruiting world, right? There was people doing some commercials here and there, but this was different. This was a very different type thing, and with that, you knew there would be a lot of scrutiny, and there has been from the get-go with him.”