The NCAA is the ruling body for collegiate sports and passes down penalties for rules infractions.

This past week, the NCAA issued one of the biggest penalties in the history of the NCAA – an $8 million fine for over 200 infractions over a three year period at the University of Tennessee.

The infractions occurred during the three year period that Jeremy Pruitt was the head football coach for the Volunteers.

Due to their cooperating with the NCAA, Tennessee avoided being handed a postseason ban.  Nor were they ordered to vacate any game wins despite having two players who were deemed ineligible.

The 80 plus page reports cites 18 level one violations – many relating to recruiting violations and payments to athletes and their families.

NCAA panel head Kay Norton noted, “it’s one of the largest cases this committee has every adjudicated.”  Adding that the violations were “egregious and expansive.”

The NCAA stated that Tennessee failed to monitor its football program and then head coach Jeremy Pruitt was in violation of the head coach responsibility rules due to his personal involvement in the infractions.  The NCAA panel noted that the Volunteer football coach and staff, “acted with general and blatant disregard for rules compliance.”

A majority of the violations involved unofficial visit schemes and unauthorized payments to players and families.  At least a dozen Volunteer football staffers were involved in the scheme that included 110 hotel room nights, 180 provided meals, 72 cases of providing entertainment or other benefits, 41 recruiting contacts, 37 cases of game day parking, and 14 cases of illegally providing gear.

Among the numerous violations were cases where Coach Pruitt and his wife personally gave money to the mothers of recruits for car payments, housing, medical bills, and other bills.

The panel also noted that at least one staff member failed to report any of the violations due to “fear of retaliation.”     Feature photo credit: University of Tennessee Volunteers athletics logo.