DONE DEAL: volunteers have successfully signed a contract of $120 million because there……..
The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions, which found more than 200 individual infractions committed by the school during former coach Jeremy Pruitt’s tenure, fined the Tennessee football program more than $8 million but spared the program from a bowl ban. The committee made its announcement for the Volunteers on Friday.
Tennessee was sentenced to five years of probation, a $8 million fine, and further financial penalties that will bring the total amount of fines closer to $9 million. In addition, the state will forfeit 28 scholarships.
Presumably the biggest penalties ever assessed in an infractions case, the $8 million fine was “equivalent to the financial impact the school would have faced if it missed the postseason during the 2023 and 2024 seasons,” according to the NCAA.
The infractions committee stated in its ruling that “the panel encountered a challenging set of circumstances related to prescribing penalties in this case.” “The panel requests that the membership and the Infractions Process Committee explicitly state their postseason ban-inclusive penalty philosophy and memorialize it in an updated set of penalty guidelines.”
Ten more scholarships will be removed over the five-year probationary period as a result of the Volunteers’ self-imposed 16-scholarship reduction over the previous two years, for which they were given credit. This year, they plan to eliminate two more scholarships.
The Tennessee sports department released a statement saying, “Our athletics department, including our football program, is fiercely competitive and committed to winning the right way.” “We successfully handled this matter during a momentous transition at the NCAA, and we are happy with the resolution that was reached in the end. While we have always desired accountability, we could not bear the thought of jeopardizing the postseason prospects of our defenseless student-athletes. The members of the NCAA concurred with us.
