Tennessee avoids bowl ban, fined over $8 million

The Tennessee football program avoided a bowl ban but was fined more than $8 million by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions, which announced its punishment for the Volunteers on Friday after finding more than 200 individual infractions committed by the school.

Among the penalties handed down, Tennessee has been placed on five years’ probation, was given an $8 million fine among other financial penalties and will see a total reduction of 28 scholarships; the school was credited for its self-imposed 16-scholarship reduction over the past two seasons.

The $8 million fine, which the NCAA said was “equivalent to the financial impact the school would have faced if it missed the postseason during the 2023 and 2024 seasons” is believed to be the largest ever levied in an infractions case. It could also signal a trend toward stiffer financial fines in future infraction cases.

“The panel encountered a challenging set of circumstances related to prescribing penalties in this case,” the infractions committee said in its decision. “The panel urges the Infractions Process Committee and the membership to clearly define its philosophy regarding penalties — which extends beyond postseason bans — and memorialize that philosophy in an updated set of penalty guidelines.”

Tennessee had been charged with 18 Level 1 violations — the most severe in the NCAA rules structure — in July 2022 stemming from the tenure of former coach Jeremy Pruitt. Included among the more than 200 infractions were charges of $60,000 in impermissible benefits and both Pruitt and his wife, Casey, making cash payments to players’ families.

Pruitt received a six-year show-cause order and would be suspended for the first full season if he was hired by an NCAA school. Pruitt has been out of top-level coaching since serving as a New York Giants senior defensive assistant in 2021.

Three other former staff members were also given show-cause orders.

Tennessee is coming off an 11-2 season in 2022 under coach Josh Heupel, the program’s first season since 2007 with double-digit wins. The Volunteers won the Orange Bowl and have significant momentum heading into 2023, which means avoiding a bowl ban is a critical step for the program’s growth moving forward.

The lack of a bowl ban continues a recent trend in NCAA cases, as the organization has gone away from punishments that are punitive toward current players, especially those who weren’t around when the violations occurred.

Tennessee was not charged with a lack of institutional control a year ago when the charges were announced, which lessened the potential scope of the penalties, as did a series of self-imposed sanctions in anticipation of the NCAA ruling.