Recruiting Forum Football Talk IV

[SouthKnoxVOL]

I like the color scheme but not the design

Lmao...its literally the smoky Grey helmets ....so you hate those too?

 

[Type Orange+]

 

[Jackcrevol]

this is heat

 

[Rishvol]

Lmao...its literally the smoky Grey helmets ....so you hate those too?

It's not the same design

 

[Cosmo Kramer]

Great article from Andy Staples:

This pretty much sums it up. Absolutely no reason for Tennessee to play ball with Gump or the NCAA. Neither is gonna do $#!+…

The attorney for fired Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt sent the Volunteers a letter earlier this month that may as well have come from 1987.
Michael Lyons, the Texas-based attorney who last year successfully retrieved the buyout Kansas sought to deny fired football coach David Beaty, has threatened to file a lawsuit on Pruitt’s behalf that could result in spilled tea that could invite more NCAA scrutiny for Tennessee. Lyons rattled his saber by suggesting he’d seek records involving former athletic director Phillip Fulmer, Chancellor Donde Plowman and basketball coach Rick Barnes. He made accusations that Tennessee boosters engaged in efforts to recruit players outside NCAA rules across multiple sports. And Lyons suggested that all of this information could become public in the discovery process of a lawsuit that Lyons will file if Tennessee doesn’t give Pruitt his $12.6 million buyout or something close to it.
“As we have previously discussed, a public lawsuit with its related discovery, document productions, depositions, disclosures, and court filings is a no-win situation for UT,” Lyons wrote in the letter, which was first obtained by Blake Toppmeyer of the USA Today Network through an open records request. “Even if UT prevails on its claimed defenses to the contract, which is unlikely, the public revelations from the lawsuit will invariably embarrass UT, its athletics department and the administration. All of the parties to this dispute should try to avoid that.”
It seems fairly likely that Tennessee would prevail in such a suit because Pruitt’s contract contains boilerplate language that makes it pretty easy to fire a coach for cause if he or anyone on his staff commits NCAA violations — including some pretty ticky-tack ones. Pruitt made a lot of enemies within the football program who were more than happy to accuse him of violations. If any of those accusations stick and amount to Level I (the most serious) or Level II (medium-strength) NCAA violations, Pruitt’s contract makes clear that Tennessee could fire him and pay zero dollars. For instance, failure to monitor his assistants and staffers would be enough to activate a for-cause firing. A winning coach probably would survive such a violation, but Pruitt didn’t win very much. If the McDonald’s bag rumor — something the NCAA would consider to be very serious — wound up being true? Pruitt’s case would get laughed out of court. Basically, Lyons is tiptoeing right up to the line that separates an invitation to negotiate a settlement and blackmail because he thinks Tennessee officials will be so scared of another potential NCAA investigation that they’ll simply write Pruitt a check.
If this were the 1980s, the 1990s or even the early 2000s, capitulating might be the best move for Tennessee. Cases involving boosters providing impermissible benefits were treated like murder trials back then. That’s not entirely hyperbole. The NCAA actually created something that was nicknamed the “Death Penalty” to punish the most egregious violators. But now? The NCAA is so hated that in one of the most divided times in the nation’s history it managed to unite both major political parties against it in states across the country. It just lost a case 9-0 in the U.S. Supreme Court. Do you know how wrong someone needs to be to lose 9-0 in a Supreme Court case?
No school in 2021 should be scared of an NCAA investigation. The NCAA won’t resort to the television bans it used to wield like a hammer because banning Tennessee from TV hurts the other schools in the SEC and the other schools in the SEC — which also help make the NCAA’s rules — don’t want that. A postseason ban is still possible, but Tennessee could proactively ban itself from the next two Birmingham Bowls and be done with that punishment. A show-cause penalty for the head football coach doesn’t matter in this case because the head football coach already got fired. Ditto for the AD. The NCAA could strip scholarships, but the public has little appetite for bureaucrats punishing current 17-year-olds for things some old people did years ago. The NCAA could vacate wins, but Pruitt barely won any games to vacate. (And few people actually care if wins get vacated.) The university and conference employees who make up the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions understand that they’re working from a very limited menu of punishments at this point.
In fact, if a Pruitt lawsuit reveals more dirt, Tennessee should welcome further inquiry. Pruitt was already fired. Fulmer was too, even if the school didn’t frame it that way. The Vols should call the NCAA enforcement staff and invite investigators to come down to Knoxville. Maybe they could give them some Petro’s Chili and Chips gift cards because the stay could last a while and those investigators might get hooked on that Hint of Orange iced tea. Tennessee should say “Give us the Ole Miss treatment,” begging the NCAA to investigate for years. Why? Because the longer this takes, the more likely the Vols run out the clock on the NCAA.
We don’t even know if the NCAA will have any control over football in five years. It barely has any now, and NCAA employees don’t relish being tasked with policing a sport that brings the organization no money and heavy criticism. If a consortium of conferences takes over governance of football, that group will have rules as well. But the rules probably will have to be different to avoid further litigation. So there is no guarantee rules broken under the old regime will result in harsh penalties in the new world. So why shouldn’t Tennessee roll the dice?
LSU has kept men’s basketball coach Will Wade for several years even though Wade was caught on an FBI wiretap discussing “a strong-ass offer” to a recruit. Wade has kept his job because he has led LSU to more wins than it is accustomed to in men’s basketball. Last week, the school fired Ed Orgeron — who has been embroiled in other issues but not NCAA ones — because he lost more games than LSU is accustomed to in football. Keeping Wade has gotten LSU ripped by columnists and celebrated by LSU’s fans. If there is little fear of NCAA sanctions, guess whose opinion matters a lot more to the AD?
Lyons, the attorney for former Tennessee coach Pruitt, did an excellent job in the Beaty/Kansas case, but the circumstances were very different. In that case, Kansas athletic director Jeff Long had pledged to pay Beaty’s buyout upon firing him but then tried to cook up a reason why he shouldn’t pay Beaty. He chose accusing Beaty of letting people who weren’t among the 10 on-field assistants coach players. Lyons got Beaty his money by showing Long video during a deposition of successor Les Miles’ staff violating the same rule Kansas had accused Beaty of violating. It was a masterstroke that got Lyons’ client money to which he was entitled.
But Tennessee investigated and made sure it had enough ammunition to fire Pruitt for cause. Paying the buyout was never promised; in fact, the school made clear when it fired Pruitt that it didn’t intend to pay. A lawsuit almost certainly could get information introduced into the public record that could embarrass Tennessee. But could it result in more serious NCAA sanctions?
In 1993, absolutely. In 2021, probably not. So it could be worth the risk — and the money — for Tennessee officials to tell Lyons to do his worst. At least he’ll get paid for every hour he spends on the case even if it doesn’t make his client another penny and might not land Tennessee in more trouble with an organization that may not have any say in college football by the time a new investigation ends.
Tennessee, Arizona State and any other school that finds itself in the NCAA’s crosshairs in the next few years should just milk the clock. It may hit zero on the NCAA’s control of football, and a clean slate could follow.

 

[matt_mccoy19]

Great article from Andy Staples:

This pretty much sums it up. Absolutely no reason for Tennessee to play ball with Gump or the NCAA. Neither is gonna do $#!+…

The attorney for fired Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt sent the Volunteers a letter earlier this month that may as well have come from 1987.
Michael Lyons, the Texas-based attorney who last year successfully retrieved the buyout Kansas sought to deny fired football coach David Beaty, has threatened to file a lawsuit on Pruitt’s behalf that could result in spilled tea that could invite more NCAA scrutiny for Tennessee. Lyons rattled his saber by suggesting he’d seek records involving former athletic director Phillip Fulmer, Chancellor Donde Plowman and basketball coach Rick Barnes. He made accusations that Tennessee boosters engaged in efforts to recruit players outside NCAA rules across multiple sports. And Lyons suggested that all of this information could become public in the discovery process of a lawsuit that Lyons will file if Tennessee doesn’t give Pruitt his $12.6 million buyout or something close to it.
“As we have previously discussed, a public lawsuit with its related discovery, document productions, depositions, disclosures, and court filings is a no-win situation for UT,” Lyons wrote in the letter, which was first obtained by Blake Toppmeyer of the USA Today Network through an open records request. “Even if UT prevails on its claimed defenses to the contract, which is unlikely, the public revelations from the lawsuit will invariably embarrass UT, its athletics department and the administration. All of the parties to this dispute should try to avoid that.”
It seems fairly likely that Tennessee would prevail in such a suit because Pruitt’s contract contains boilerplate language that makes it pretty easy to fire a coach for cause if he or anyone on his staff commits NCAA violations — including some pretty ticky-tack ones. Pruitt made a lot of enemies within the football program who were more than happy to accuse him of violations. If any of those accusations stick and amount to Level I (the most serious) or Level II (medium-strength) NCAA violations, Pruitt’s contract makes clear that Tennessee could fire him and pay zero dollars. For instance, failure to monitor his assistants and staffers would be enough to activate a for-cause firing. A winning coach probably would survive such a violation, but Pruitt didn’t win very much. If the McDonald’s bag rumor — something the NCAA would consider to be very serious — wound up being true? Pruitt’s case would get laughed out of court. Basically, Lyons is tiptoeing right up to the line that separates an invitation to negotiate a settlement and blackmail because he thinks Tennessee officials will be so scared of another potential NCAA investigation that they’ll simply write Pruitt a check.
If this were the 1980s, the 1990s or even the early 2000s, capitulating might be the best move for Tennessee. Cases involving boosters providing impermissible benefits were treated like murder trials back then. That’s not entirely hyperbole. The NCAA actually created something that was nicknamed the “Death Penalty” to punish the most egregious violators. But now? The NCAA is so hated that in one of the most divided times in the nation’s history it managed to unite both major political parties against it in states across the country. It just lost a case 9-0 in the U.S. Supreme Court. Do you know how wrong someone needs to be to lose 9-0 in a Supreme Court case?
No school in 2021 should be scared of an NCAA investigation. The NCAA won’t resort to the television bans it used to wield like a hammer because banning Tennessee from TV hurts the other schools in the SEC and the other schools in the SEC — which also help make the NCAA’s rules — don’t want that. A postseason ban is still possible, but Tennessee could proactively ban itself from the next two Birmingham Bowls and be done with that punishment. A show-cause penalty for the head football coach doesn’t matter in this case because the head football coach already got fired. Ditto for the AD. The NCAA could strip scholarships, but the public has little appetite for bureaucrats punishing current 17-year-olds for things some old people did years ago. The NCAA could vacate wins, but Pruitt barely won any games to vacate. (And few people actually care if wins get vacated.) The university and conference employees who make up the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions understand that they’re working from a very limited menu of punishments at this point.
In fact, if a Pruitt lawsuit reveals more dirt, Tennessee should welcome further inquiry. Pruitt was already fired. Fulmer was too, even if the school didn’t frame it that way. The Vols should call the NCAA enforcement staff and invite investigators to come down to Knoxville. Maybe they could give them some Petro’s Chili and Chips gift cards because the stay could last a while and those investigators might get hooked on that Hint of Orange iced tea. Tennessee should say “Give us the Ole Miss treatment,” begging the NCAA to investigate for years. Why? Because the longer this takes, the more likely the Vols run out the clock on the NCAA.
We don’t even know if the NCAA will have any control over football in five years. It barely has any now, and NCAA employees don’t relish being tasked with policing a sport that brings the organization no money and heavy criticism. If a consortium of conferences takes over governance of football, that group will have rules as well. But the rules probably will have to be different to avoid further litigation. So there is no guarantee rules broken under the old regime will result in harsh penalties in the new world. So why shouldn’t Tennessee roll the dice?
LSU has kept men’s basketball coach Will Wade for several years even though Wade was caught on an FBI wiretap discussing “a strong-ass offer” to a recruit. Wade has kept his job because he has led LSU to more wins than it is accustomed to in men’s basketball. Last week, the school fired Ed Orgeron — who has been embroiled in other issues but not NCAA ones — because he lost more games than LSU is accustomed to in football. Keeping Wade has gotten LSU ripped by columnists and celebrated by LSU’s fans. If there is little fear of NCAA sanctions, guess whose opinion matters a lot more to the AD?
Lyons, the attorney for former Tennessee coach Pruitt, did an excellent job in the Beaty/Kansas case, but the circumstances were very different. In that case, Kansas athletic director Jeff Long had pledged to pay Beaty’s buyout upon firing him but then tried to cook up a reason why he shouldn’t pay Beaty. He chose accusing Beaty of letting people who weren’t among the 10 on-field assistants coach players. Lyons got Beaty his money by showing Long video during a deposition of successor Les Miles’ staff violating the same rule Kansas had accused Beaty of violating. It was a masterstroke that got Lyons’ client money to which he was entitled.
But Tennessee investigated and made sure it had enough ammunition to fire Pruitt for cause. Paying the buyout was never promised; in fact, the school made clear when it fired Pruitt that it didn’t intend to pay. A lawsuit almost certainly could get information introduced into the public record that could embarrass Tennessee. But could it result in more serious NCAA sanctions?
In 1993, absolutely. In 2021, probably not. So it could be worth the risk — and the money — for Tennessee officials to tell Lyons to do his worst. At least he’ll get paid for every hour he spends on the case even if it doesn’t make his client another penny and might not land Tennessee in more trouble with an organization that may not have any say in college football by the time a new investigation ends.
Tennessee, Arizona State and any other school that finds itself in the NCAA’s crosshairs in the next few years should just milk the clock. It may hit zero on the NCAA’s control of football, and a clean slate could follow.

Yea im not reading all that…. Congratulations! Or im sorry! Whichever applies

 

[Nashvegas31]

Wow I would not want this azz in my team

 

[UpstateVol613]

So being overhyped and bad doesn’t affect Mac recruiting. Noted.

 

[Orangeredblooded]

Duh! 15 years and counting

Just stop. You’re a entertaining kid, and believe it or not, I’ve always rooted for you outside of your posts concerning football. You get one every once in awhile, but just know when to reel in the line and call it a day.

 

[Hardy]

Nevermind. Don't want.

That’s enough for me. Can’t stand him. Don’t care how well he plays.

 

[Ulysees E. McGill]

All three of them rotated with the 1’s through camp….Bailey fell behind and Hooker still played with the 1’s some till maybe the week before game week…. They also worked with them all spring and summer.

I will keep my thoughts to myself about it, everybody knows what they are, and nobody wants us to rehash it again...so whatever.

 

[TheRain]

A little aid for tired eyes Cosmo Kramer if you don't mind.


The attorney for fired Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt sent the Volunteers a letter earlier this month that may as well have come from 1987.
Michael Lyons, the Texas-based attorney who last year successfully retrieved the buyout Kansas sought to deny fired football coach David Beaty, has threatened to file a lawsuit on Pruitt’s behalf that could result in spilled tea that could invite more NCAA scrutiny for Tennessee. Lyons rattled his saber by suggesting he’d seek records involving former athletic director Phillip Fulmer, Chancellor Donde Plowman and basketball coach Rick Barnes. He made accusations that Tennessee boosters engaged in efforts to recruit players outside NCAA rules across multiple sports. And Lyons suggested that all of this information could become public in the discovery process of a lawsuit that Lyons will file if Tennessee doesn’t give Pruitt his $12.6 million buyout or something close to it.

“As we have previously discussed, a public lawsuit with its related discovery, document productions, depositions, disclosures, and court filings is a no-win situation for UT,” Lyons wrote in the letter, which was first obtained by Blake Toppmeyer of the USA Today Network through an open records request. “Even if UT prevails on its claimed defenses to the contract, which is unlikely, the public revelations from the lawsuit will invariably embarrass UT, its athletics department and the administration. All of the parties to this dispute should try to avoid that.”

It seems fairly likely that Tennessee would prevail in such a suit because Pruitt’s contract contains boilerplate language that makes it pretty easy to fire a coach for cause if he or anyone on his staff commits NCAA violations — including some pretty ticky-tack ones. Pruitt made a lot of enemies within the football program who were more than happy to accuse him of violations. If any of those accusations stick and amount to Level I (the most serious) or Level II (medium-strength) NCAA violations, Pruitt’s contract makes clear that Tennessee could fire him and pay zero dollars. For instance, failure to monitor his assistants and staffers would be enough to activate a for-cause firing. A winning coach probably would survive such a violation, but Pruitt didn’t win very much. If the McDonald’s bag rumor — something the NCAA would consider to be very serious — wound up being true? Pruitt’s case would get laughed out of court. Basically, Lyons is tiptoeing right up to the line that separates an invitation to negotiate a settlement and blackmail because he thinks Tennessee officials will be so scared of another potential NCAA investigation that they’ll simply write Pruitt a check.

If this were the 1980s, the 1990s or even the early 2000s, capitulating might be the best move for Tennessee. Cases involving boosters providing impermissible benefits were treated like murder trials back then. That’s not entirely hyperbole. The NCAA actually created something that was nicknamed the “Death Penalty” to punish the most egregious violators. But now? The NCAA is so hated that in one of the most divided times in the nation’s history it managed to unite both major political parties against it in states across the country. It just lost a case 9-0 in the U.S. Supreme Court. Do you know how wrong someone needs to be to lose 9-0 in a Supreme Court case?

No school in 2021 should be scared of an NCAA investigation. The NCAA won’t resort to the television bans it used to wield like a hammer because banning Tennessee from TV hurts the other schools in the SEC and the other schools in the SEC — which also help make the NCAA’s rules — don’t want that. A postseason ban is still possible, but Tennessee could proactively ban itself from the next two Birmingham Bowls and be done with that punishment. A show-cause penalty for the head football coach doesn’t matter in this case because the head football coach already got fired. Ditto for the AD. The NCAA could strip scholarships, but the public has little appetite for bureaucrats punishing current 17-year-olds for things some old people did years ago. The NCAA could vacate wins, but Pruitt barely won any games to vacate. (And few people actually care if wins get vacated.) The university and conference employees who make up the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions understand that they’re working from a very limited menu of punishments at this point.

In fact, if a Pruitt lawsuit reveals more dirt, Tennessee should welcome further inquiry. Pruitt was already fired. Fulmer was too, even if the school didn’t frame it that way. The Vols should call the NCAA enforcement staff and invite investigators to come down to Knoxville. Maybe they could give them some Petro’s Chili and Chips gift cards because the stay could last a while and those investigators might get hooked on that Hint of Orange iced tea. Tennessee should say “Give us the Ole Miss treatment,” begging the NCAA to investigate for years. Why? Because the longer this takes, the more likely the Vols run out the clock on the NCAA.

We don’t even know if the NCAA will have any control over football in five years. It barely has any now, and NCAA employees don’t relish being tasked with policing a sport that brings the organization no money and heavy criticism. If a consortium of conferences takes over governance of football, that group will have rules as well. But the rules probably will have to be different to avoid further litigation. So there is no guarantee rules broken under the old regime will result in harsh penalties in the new world. So why shouldn’t Tennessee roll the dice?

LSU has kept men’s basketball coach Will Wade for several years even though Wade was caught on an FBI wiretap discussing “a strong-ass offer” to a recruit. Wade has kept his job because he has led LSU to more wins than it is accustomed to in men’s basketball. Last week, the school fired Ed Orgeron — who has been embroiled in other issues but not NCAA ones — because he lost more games than LSU is accustomed to in football. Keeping Wade has gotten LSU ripped by columnists and celebrated by LSU’s fans. If there is little fear of NCAA sanctions, guess whose opinion matters a lot more to the AD?

Lyons, the attorney for former Tennessee coach Pruitt, did an excellent job in the Beaty/Kansas case, but the circumstances were very different. In that case, Kansas athletic director Jeff Long had pledged to pay Beaty’s buyout upon firing him but then tried to cook up a reason why he shouldn’t pay Beaty. He chose accusing Beaty of letting people who weren’t among the 10 on-field assistants coach players. Lyons got Beaty his money by showing Long video during a deposition of successor Les Miles’ staff violating the same rule Kansas had accused Beaty of violating. It was a masterstroke that got Lyons’ client money to which he was entitled.

But Tennessee investigated and made sure it had enough ammunition to fire Pruitt for cause. Paying the buyout was never promised; in fact, the school made clear when it fired Pruitt that it didn’t intend to pay. A lawsuit almost certainly could get information introduced into the public record that could embarrass Tennessee. But could it result in more serious NCAA sanctions?

In 1993, absolutely. In 2021, probably not. So it could be worth the risk — and the money — for Tennessee officials to tell Lyons to do his worst. At least he’ll get paid for every hour he spends on the case even if it doesn’t make his client another penny and might not land Tennessee in more trouble with an organization that may not have any say in college football by the time a new investigation ends.

Tennessee, Arizona State and any other school that finds itself in the NCAA’s crosshairs in the next few years should just milk the clock. It may hit zero on the NCAA’s control of football, and a clean slate could follow.

 

[Paper_Towel]

A little aid for tired eyes.

The attorney for fired Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt sent the Volunteers a letter earlier this month that may as well have come from 1987.
Michael Lyons, the Texas-based attorney who last year successfully retrieved the buyout Kansas sought to deny fired football coach David Beaty, has threatened to file a lawsuit on Pruitt’s behalf that could result in spilled tea that could invite more NCAA scrutiny for Tennessee. Lyons rattled his saber by suggesting he’d seek records involving former athletic director Phillip Fulmer, Chancellor Donde Plowman and basketball coach Rick Barnes. He made accusations that Tennessee boosters engaged in efforts to recruit players outside NCAA rules across multiple sports. And Lyons suggested that all of this information could become public in the discovery process of a lawsuit that Lyons will file if Tennessee doesn’t give Pruitt his $12.6 million buyout or something close to it.

“As we have previously discussed, a public lawsuit with its related discovery, document productions, depositions, disclosures, and court filings is a no-win situation for UT,” Lyons wrote in the letter, which was first obtained by Blake Toppmeyer of the USA Today Network through an open records request. “Even if UT prevails on its claimed defenses to the contract, which is unlikely, the public revelations from the lawsuit will invariably embarrass UT, its athletics department and the administration. All of the parties to this dispute should try to avoid that.”

It seems fairly likely that Tennessee would prevail in such a suit because Pruitt’s contract contains boilerplate language that makes it pretty easy to fire a coach for cause if he or anyone on his staff commits NCAA violations — including some pretty ticky-tack ones. Pruitt made a lot of enemies within the football program who were more than happy to accuse him of violations. If any of those accusations stick and amount to Level I (the most serious) or Level II (medium-strength) NCAA violations, Pruitt’s contract makes clear that Tennessee could fire him and pay zero dollars. For instance, failure to monitor his assistants and staffers would be enough to activate a for-cause firing. A winning coach probably would survive such a violation, but Pruitt didn’t win very much. If the McDonald’s bag rumor — something the NCAA would consider to be very serious — wound up being true? Pruitt’s case would get laughed out of court. Basically, Lyons is tiptoeing right up to the line that separates an invitation to negotiate a settlement and blackmail because he thinks Tennessee officials will be so scared of another potential NCAA investigation that they’ll simply write Pruitt a check.

If this were the 1980s, the 1990s or even the early 2000s, capitulating might be the best move for Tennessee. Cases involving boosters providing impermissible benefits were treated like murder trials back then. That’s not entirely hyperbole. The NCAA actually created something that was nicknamed the “Death Penalty” to punish the most egregious violators. But now? The NCAA is so hated that in one of the most divided times in the nation’s history it managed to unite both major political parties against it in states across the country. It just lost a case 9-0 in the U.S. Supreme Court. Do you know how wrong someone needs to be to lose 9-0 in a Supreme Court case?

No school in 2021 should be scared of an NCAA investigation. The NCAA won’t resort to the television bans it used to wield like a hammer because banning Tennessee from TV hurts the other schools in the SEC and the other schools in the SEC — which also help make the NCAA’s rules — don’t want that. A postseason ban is still possible, but Tennessee could proactively ban itself from the next two Birmingham Bowls and be done with that punishment. A show-cause penalty for the head football coach doesn’t matter in this case because the head football coach already got fired. Ditto for the AD. The NCAA could strip scholarships, but the public has little appetite for bureaucrats punishing current 17-year-olds for things some old people did years ago. The NCAA could vacate wins, but Pruitt barely won any games to vacate. (And few people actually care if wins get vacated.) The university and conference employees who make up the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions understand that they’re working from a very limited menu of punishments at this point.

In fact, if a Pruitt lawsuit reveals more dirt, Tennessee should welcome further inquiry. Pruitt was already fired. Fulmer was too, even if the school didn’t frame it that way. The Vols should call the NCAA enforcement staff and invite investigators to come down to Knoxville. Maybe they could give them some Petro’s Chili and Chips gift cards because the stay could last a while and those investigators might get hooked on that Hint of Orange iced tea. Tennessee should say “Give us the Ole Miss treatment,” begging the NCAA to investigate for years. Why? Because the longer this takes, the more likely the Vols run out the clock on the NCAA.

We don’t even know if the NCAA will have any control over football in five years. It barely has any now, and NCAA employees don’t relish being tasked with policing a sport that brings the organization no money and heavy criticism. If a consortium of conferences takes over governance of football, that group will have rules as well. But the rules probably will have to be different to avoid further litigation. So there is no guarantee rules broken under the old regime will result in harsh penalties in the new world. So why shouldn’t Tennessee roll the dice?

LSU has kept men’s basketball coach Will Wade for several years even though Wade was caught on an FBI wiretap discussing “a strong-ass offer” to a recruit. Wade has kept his job because he has led LSU to more wins than it is accustomed to in men’s basketball. Last week, the school fired Ed Orgeron — who has been embroiled in other issues but not NCAA ones — because he lost more games than LSU is accustomed to in football. Keeping Wade has gotten LSU ripped by columnists and celebrated by LSU’s fans. If there is little fear of NCAA sanctions, guess whose opinion matters a lot more to the AD?

Lyons, the attorney for former Tennessee coach Pruitt, did an excellent job in the Beaty/Kansas case, but the circumstances were very different. In that case, Kansas athletic director Jeff Long had pledged to pay Beaty’s buyout upon firing him but then tried to cook up a reason why he shouldn’t pay Beaty. He chose accusing Beaty of letting people who weren’t among the 10 on-field assistants coach players. Lyons got Beaty his money by showing Long video during a deposition of successor Les Miles’ staff violating the same rule Kansas had accused Beaty of violating. It was a masterstroke that got Lyons’ client money to which he was entitled.

But Tennessee investigated and made sure it had enough ammunition to fire Pruitt for cause. Paying the buyout was never promised; in fact, the school made clear when it fired Pruitt that it didn’t intend to pay. A lawsuit almost certainly could get information introduced into the public record that could embarrass Tennessee. But could it result in more serious NCAA sanctions?

In 1993, absolutely. In 2021, probably not. So it could be worth the risk — and the money — for Tennessee officials to tell Lyons to do his worst. At least he’ll get paid for every hour he spends on the case even if it doesn’t make his client another penny and might not land Tennessee in more trouble with an organization that may not have any say in college football by the time a new investigation ends.

Tennessee, Arizona State and any other school that finds itself in the NCAA’s crosshairs in the next few years should just milk the clock. It may hit zero on the NCAA’s control of football, and a clean slate could follow.

Please don’t let this be the copy pasta of the week.

 

[volsfan_17]

Yea im not reading all that…. Congratulations! Or im sorry! Whichever applies

Not ripping you because this is what most people will do, scroll right on by. Then for days to come make the same points, or question things covered in the article.

Very well written and spot on IMO.

 

[Orange Studs]

That's pretty cool right there.

 

[Ulysees E. McGill]

It's not the same design

The mountains themselves, I mean the shape of them, look a little weird on these, but I like how these gradually go to white. I actually like that part better than the real Smokey Greys.

 

[Orange Studs]

I love that!

 

[Devo182]

Wow those are awesome. Make it happen. We need more grey all around. Best color there is...goes with everything.

 

[Cosmo Kramer]

Yea im not reading all that…. Congratulations! Or im sorry! Whichever applies

Lazy azz

 

[Rishvol]

The mountains themselves, I mean the shape of them, look a little weird on these, but I like how these gradually go to white. I actually like that part better than the real Smokey Greys.

I like it too but I'm pretty sure it's not the same design

 

[Tennessee Golfer]

Dude needs a high five.

In the face.

With a chair.

 

[Ulysees E. McGill]

So being overhyped and bad doesn’t affect Mac recruiting. Noted.

Stupid kids are stupid..

 

[Ulysees E. McGill]

I like it too but I'm pretty sure it's not the same design

It's not..

 

[SoilVol]

A little aid for tired eyes Cosmo Kramer if you don't mind.


The attorney for fired Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt sent the Volunteers a letter earlier this month that may as well have come from 1987.
Michael Lyons, the Texas-based attorney who last year successfully retrieved the buyout Kansas sought to deny fired football coach David Beaty, has threatened to file a lawsuit on Pruitt’s behalf that could result in spilled tea that could invite more NCAA scrutiny for Tennessee. Lyons rattled his saber by suggesting he’d seek records involving former athletic director Phillip Fulmer, Chancellor Donde Plowman and basketball coach Rick Barnes. He made accusations that Tennessee boosters engaged in efforts to recruit players outside NCAA rules across multiple sports. And Lyons suggested that all of this information could become public in the discovery process of a lawsuit that Lyons will file if Tennessee doesn’t give Pruitt his $12.6 million buyout or something close to it.

“As we have previously discussed, a public lawsuit with its related discovery, document productions, depositions, disclosures, and court filings is a no-win situation for UT,” Lyons wrote in the letter, which was first obtained by Blake Toppmeyer of the USA Today Network through an open records request. “Even if UT prevails on its claimed defenses to the contract, which is unlikely, the public revelations from the lawsuit will invariably embarrass UT, its athletics department and the administration. All of the parties to this dispute should try to avoid that.”

It seems fairly likely that Tennessee would prevail in such a suit because Pruitt’s contract contains boilerplate language that makes it pretty easy to fire a coach for cause if he or anyone on his staff commits NCAA violations — including some pretty ticky-tack ones. Pruitt made a lot of enemies within the football program who were more than happy to accuse him of violations. If any of those accusations stick and amount to Level I (the most serious) or Level II (medium-strength) NCAA violations, Pruitt’s contract makes clear that Tennessee could fire him and pay zero dollars. For instance, failure to monitor his assistants and staffers would be enough to activate a for-cause firing. A winning coach probably would survive such a violation, but Pruitt didn’t win very much. If the McDonald’s bag rumor — something the NCAA would consider to be very serious — wound up being true? Pruitt’s case would get laughed out of court. Basically, Lyons is tiptoeing right up to the line that separates an invitation to negotiate a settlement and blackmail because he thinks Tennessee officials will be so scared of another potential NCAA investigation that they’ll simply write Pruitt a check.

If this were the 1980s, the 1990s or even the early 2000s, capitulating might be the best move for Tennessee. Cases involving boosters providing impermissible benefits were treated like murder trials back then. That’s not entirely hyperbole. The NCAA actually created something that was nicknamed the “Death Penalty” to punish the most egregious violators. But now? The NCAA is so hated that in one of the most divided times in the nation’s history it managed to unite both major political parties against it in states across the country. It just lost a case 9-0 in the U.S. Supreme Court. Do you know how wrong someone needs to be to lose 9-0 in a Supreme Court case?

No school in 2021 should be scared of an NCAA investigation. The NCAA won’t resort to the television bans it used to wield like a hammer because banning Tennessee from TV hurts the other schools in the SEC and the other schools in the SEC — which also help make the NCAA’s rules — don’t want that. A postseason ban is still possible, but Tennessee could proactively ban itself from the next two Birmingham Bowls and be done with that punishment. A show-cause penalty for the head football coach doesn’t matter in this case because the head football coach already got fired. Ditto for the AD. The NCAA could strip scholarships, but the public has little appetite for bureaucrats punishing current 17-year-olds for things some old people did years ago. The NCAA could vacate wins, but Pruitt barely won any games to vacate. (And few people actually care if wins get vacated.) The university and conference employees who make up the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions understand that they’re working from a very limited menu of punishments at this point.

In fact, if a Pruitt lawsuit reveals more dirt, Tennessee should welcome further inquiry. Pruitt was already fired. Fulmer was too, even if the school didn’t frame it that way. The Vols should call the NCAA enforcement staff and invite investigators to come down to Knoxville. Maybe they could give them some Petro’s Chili and Chips gift cards because the stay could last a while and those investigators might get hooked on that Hint of Orange iced tea. Tennessee should say “Give us the Ole Miss treatment,” begging the NCAA to investigate for years. Why? Because the longer this takes, the more likely the Vols run out the clock on the NCAA.

We don’t even know if the NCAA will have any control over football in five years. It barely has any now, and NCAA employees don’t relish being tasked with policing a sport that brings the organization no money and heavy criticism. If a consortium of conferences takes over governance of football, that group will have rules as well. But the rules probably will have to be different to avoid further litigation. So there is no guarantee rules broken under the old regime will result in harsh penalties in the new world. So why shouldn’t Tennessee roll the dice?

LSU has kept men’s basketball coach Will Wade for several years even though Wade was caught on an FBI wiretap discussing “a strong-ass offer” to a recruit. Wade has kept his job because he has led LSU to more wins than it is accustomed to in men’s basketball. Last week, the school fired Ed Orgeron — who has been embroiled in other issues but not NCAA ones — because he lost more games than LSU is accustomed to in football. Keeping Wade has gotten LSU ripped by columnists and celebrated by LSU’s fans. If there is little fear of NCAA sanctions, guess whose opinion matters a lot more to the AD?

Lyons, the attorney for former Tennessee coach Pruitt, did an excellent job in the Beaty/Kansas case, but the circumstances were very different. In that case, Kansas athletic director Jeff Long had pledged to pay Beaty’s buyout upon firing him but then tried to cook up a reason why he shouldn’t pay Beaty. He chose accusing Beaty of letting people who weren’t among the 10 on-field assistants coach players. Lyons got Beaty his money by showing Long video during a deposition of successor Les Miles’ staff violating the same rule Kansas had accused Beaty of violating. It was a masterstroke that got Lyons’ client money to which he was entitled.

But Tennessee investigated and made sure it had enough ammunition to fire Pruitt for cause. Paying the buyout was never promised; in fact, the school made clear when it fired Pruitt that it didn’t intend to pay. A lawsuit almost certainly could get information introduced into the public record that could embarrass Tennessee. But could it result in more serious NCAA sanctions?

In 1993, absolutely. In 2021, probably not. So it could be worth the risk — and the money — for Tennessee officials to tell Lyons to do his worst. At least he’ll get paid for every hour he spends on the case even if it doesn’t make his client another penny and might not land Tennessee in more trouble with an organization that may not have any say in college football by the time a new investigation ends.

Tennessee, Arizona State and any other school that finds itself in the NCAA’s crosshairs in the next few years should just milk the clock. It may hit zero on the NCAA’s control of football, and a clean slate could follow.

99% chance that Jimbo, Georgia's AD, and Saban are telling Pruitt to put a sock in it. If this goes to court and gets public, Alabama, Georgia, FSU, and Jimbo's staff are getting implicated too.

I almost want to see that happen... because we already fired our people and our program is already "down." We have nothing to lose. Force Saban into retirement and give Georgia the Sherman treatment.

 

[Smyrna ATL Vol]

I want whoever Heupel wants

Why in the world would you not want Rattler and Hooker. Dream QB scenario for next year and Jackson gets to redshirt. Bailey and Milton likely gone.