Tennessee must vacate all 11 wins from ’19, ’20

Chris Low, ESPN Senior WriterJul 15, 2023, 05:44 PM ET
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- College football reporter
- Joined ESPN.com in 2007
- Graduate of the University of Tennessee

Tennessee’s football program must vacate all 11 wins from the 2019 and 2020 seasons under former coach Jeremy Pruitt as part of the penalties handed down by the NCAA stemming from recruiting violations, school officials told ESPN on Saturday.

Tennessee avoided a postseason ban but was hit with an $8 million fine by the NCAA — believed to be the largest levied in an NCAA infractions case — and placed on five years of probation, which includes the total reduction of 28 scholarships. The NCAA deemed that 16 players were ineligible when they played in those 2019 and 2020 games because of their involvement in what the NCAA said were more than 200 infractions committed during Pruitt’s three seasons at Tennessee from 2018 through 2020. Tennessee’s official record book will be changed to reflect that the Vols were 0-5 in 2019 and 0-7 in 2020, and Pruitt’s final record at Tennessee will be 5-19.

The vacating of wins does not mean the opponents in those games are granted wins. Tennessee’s all-time record now stands at 856-410-53, which drops the Vols out of the top 10 nationally in wins.

Sources told ESPN that some of the players who were declared ineligible, including those who transferred to other schools, were later able to regain their eligibility by being granted immunity and cooperating with the NCAA in its investigation of Tennessee. Pruitt was given a six-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA and has not coached in college since being fired for cause at the end of the 2020 season. Pruitt, who did not receive any of his $12.6 million buyout, told ESPN he would decline comment at this time.

Kay Norton, president emerita at Northern Colorado and the chief hearing officer for the NCAA panel, called the violations “egregious and expansive,” making it “one of the largest cases this committee has ever adjudicated.” Tennessee had been charged with 18 Level 1 violations — the most severe in the NCAA rules structure — in July 2022. Among the charges were $60,000 in impermissible benefits and that both Pruitt and his wife, Casey, made cash payments to players’ families.

Because Tennessee showed “exemplary cooperation” after the violations were first reported, though, a postseason ban was removed from the array of available penalties. In this case, Norton said, the committee felt the “punishment fits the crime.”

In addition to Pruitt, three other former staff members were given show-cause orders in the penalties announced Friday by the NCAA, including former defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel reported Saturday that Ansley said the recruiting violations committed were “caused and overseen by” Pruitt and other staff members in Ansley’s response to the NCAA notice of allegations, a response submitted on behalf of Ansley by his attorney, Gregg E. Clifton. Ansley, now the Los Angeles Chargers‘ defensive coordinator, received a two-year show-cause penalty.

“It is Mr. Ansley’s position that his name has been improperly joined with these other Tennessee football program employees who were violators of the NCAA Bylaws and the COVID shutdown rules,” Clifton wrote in Nov. 21, 2022, documents.

The NCAA found that most of the violations in the case were related to Tennessee coaches illegally paying for unofficial visits for prospects and their parents, including hotel rooms. Pruitt told NCAA investigators that any such wrongdoing was hidden from him by his assistants and that he was unaware of the violations.

Tennessee officials and others, including SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Pruitt, were in Cincinnati for two days in April as the committee on infractions heard Tennessee’s case, which was ignited when university chancellor Donde Plowman said in November 2020 that her office had received a credible tip on a potential recruiting violation within the football program. A week later, Tennessee hired the law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King to investigate any wrongdoing. That investigation lasted nearly a year and cost the university more than $1.5 million in legal fees.

Sources told ESPN that during the hearings in Cincinnati that Pruitt asked the committee on infractions not to punish the current Tennessee players with a postseason ban and said they deserved to play for championships.

Avoiding a postseason ban was a priority of Tennessee officials all along — to not punish players and coaches who weren’t part of the program when the violations occurred. The lack of a bowl ban also continues a recent trend in NCAA cases.

“I have said from the beginning that we are committed to winning with integrity,” Plowman said in a statement Friday. “I believe we also resolved this case with integrity, always committed to holding ourselves accountable and wrong-doers responsible, while protecting the rights of student-athletes who had nothing to do with the infractions.

“We recognize this was a serious case, and the penalties we received from the Committee on Infractions are consistent with what we expected and negotiated with the NCAA enforcement staff last year.”

All parties have the right to appeal. There has been no word from Pruitt’s camp if he will proceed with an appeal. As part of his punishment, Pruitt would be suspended for the first full season if he were hired by an NCAA school.

When Tennessee announced Pruitt’s firing on Jan. 18, 2021, athletic director and Hall of Fame former coach Phillip Fulmer also announced his retirement. Plowman said Fulmer’s retirement was independent of and unrelated to the investigation. Fulmer hired Pruitt prior to Plowman coming to Tennessee as chancellor. Danny White was hired as AD soon after Fulmer’s retirement and has since revamped almost the entire athletic department.

Tennessee is coming off an 11-2 season in 2022 under Josh Heupel, the program’s first campaign since 2007 with double-digit wins. The Vols won the Orange Bowl and have significant momentum heading into 2023.

Heupel told ESPN on Friday it was a huge relief to avoid a bowl ban.

“The logical thought is, ‘How are you going to punish innocent people and innocent kids?'” Heupel said. “I’m certainly pleased with the outcome. For people, it’s the right decision.”