Should the Volunteers leadership have tried to hide the recruiting violations?

Should our leadership have hidden the violations? And why didn't they?

  • Leadership should have hidden the violations from the world; they went public to avoid buyout

    Votes: 50 19.9%

  • Leadership should have hidden the violations; but avoiding buyout wasn't their motivation

    Votes: 3 1.2%

  • Leadership did the right thing admitting the violations; they did it to avoid Pruitt buyout

    Votes: 83 33.1%

  • Leadership did the right thing admitting the violations; the buyout was not their motivation

    Votes: 92 36.7%

  • I don't have a clear opinion on these two questions

    Votes: 23 9.2%
  • Total voters
    251
#26
#26
Majors said:
We've been playing the game for awhile. It seems we've either not been able to sustain or we got sloppy in who knew and how we conducted business. Your last line is telling and seems to be in play.
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It’s going to be hard to tell until everything comes out whether we found violations and freaked out to mitigate the damage or if we used them as an opportunity the get out of a contract.
 
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#27
#27
GAVol said:
It’s going to be hard to tell until everything comes out whether we found violations and freaked out to mitigate the damage or if we used them as an opportunity the get out of a contract.
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I'm siding with the last part that went bad.
 
#28
#28
In this day and age I don't see how you can hide things that involve money and 17-22 year olds. Someone is going to talk. If you're looking for a way to get your coach fired for cause, do what UT did. Put on a "we had no idea" presser and cross your fingers.
 
#29
#29
We do not know. The NCAA is now on the spot to prove if they punish or reward programs that step forward and take responsibility. In the past, it seems they have been too harsh with those who stepped up and were honest. This situation is may be even more high profile than those. If the NCAA hammers UT... then the clear message will be to NEVER tell them the truth or self-police. Just hide everything and lawyer up.

On the other hand, if the NCAA is even as wise as say... the EPA... they'll accept a correction and monitoring plan plus a "lesser sentence" and encourage other programs to do the right thing.
 
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#30
#30
PS- from a pure financial standpoint... someone might have figured that lost revenue from whatever the NCAA does would be less than Pruitt's buyout. I struggle to believe they'd take that risk though. If documents were found or testimony given... the NCAA might make the punishment much, much worse.
 
#31
#31
Here is the way I see it.

Every football program bends the rules in some way, always have and probably always will.

From what I understand, Pruitt was pretty dang brazen (or stupid) in the way he or his staff was paying out the benefits to the recruits. He probably would have still been ok, but it appears he is was a jerk to a lot of people. If you're going to be an ass, it's usually smart to keep any wrong doings hid from people you've pissed off.

When some found out about what he was doing and took it to higher ups outside the AD, Pandora's box was opened and there was no turning back.

I don't believe it was done solely to keep from paying for the buyout. Pruitt allowed what was going on to be known outside the normal circles and paid the price.
 
#33
#33
They are all shady, sneaky pseudo criminals. They should be drummed out of town. They won’t be. Nothing will change. We will be taking about this sort of crap again in a few years. Meanwhile all our SEC foes have cleaned their booster problems and put on a clinic every time they face the Vols. All the ray from the top. Haslam, Boyd, Plowman.
 
#34
#34
chattavol420 said:
Most of us belibe that they administration should’ve kept the violations under wraps amd negotiated a reduced buyout with Pruitt. That would’ve allowed us to go after freeze. But what’s done is done. Time to focus on the future and we definitely hired an exciting offensive coach. Let’s see what happens
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Well, Chatta, it seems we were both right. Just about different aspects. Based on the first 100 or so responses to the poll.

Most folks do not agree with you that the university leadership should have kept the violations hidden. In fact, 87 of the 110 people who expressed an opinion (79%, almost 4 out of every 5 fans) believe we did the right thing as a program.

On the other hand, more than half (64 of 110, or 58%) of us agree with you that the leadership was motivated--at least in part--to go public in order to avoid paying Jeremy Pruitt his buyout. That surprises me a bit, shows we're a fairly cynical lot. Heh.

Proud of VolNation for supporting the honest approach by the university.

Go Vols!


p.s. %s could change as folks continue to respond to the poll.
 
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#35
#35
If there was knowledge of this going on and "used" to get out of a contract because he wasn't winning, I do have a problem with that.
 
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#37
#37
VFL-82-JP said:
It has been said on this board a few different times that our program should've hidden the violations, tried to skate past outside notice.

Frequently, when that assertion is made, it is accompanied by hints that the only reason we acknowledged the scandal was to fire Pruitt for cause, avoiding any buyout.

Like this, from Chatta420:


I don't believe Chatta420 is right. I don't think most of us do believe that would have been the right thing to do. But that's why this poll exists; to find out.

So this poll is about both those issues. What do you think?
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Good poll question. They did the right thing. I have a hard time believing the buyout had nothing to do with the decision to open up the self investigation. I hear people say this happens everywhere. Bama ohio state florida Georgia and they dont report that on themselves so who's to say just talk i guess. UT did the right thing but i cant say they weren't eyeing the buyout either...
 
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#38
#38
No! The violations were sent to the Chancellor's Office. If she and Boyd sit on it and hide and then it comes out, they've got you for lack of institutional control and can drop the hammer, like 3 to 4 year postseason ban and 25% scholarship reductions. I bet we get off with either 0 or 1 year bowl ban and like loss of 5 scholarships over 2 years. TN is not an NCAA-protected program, like Bama football or UNC/ Kansas BB. We would have gotten near death-penalty stuff if we were caught in the coverup.
 
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#39
#39
Boca Vol said:
In this day and age I don't see how you can hide things that involve money and 17-22 year olds. Someone is going to talk.
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Not really - every other major program pays for play. Since Nieds and Pruitt both came from Alabama you can be pretty sure thats exactly what they do there but either they got sloppy here or we are simply not set up systematically at the same level as these other programs like Bama and GA so that information like this simply never escapes because EVERYONE, from the admin to the local media is in on it and remains willfully blind to it.
 
#40
#40
RockyTop140 said:
I believe they did this because they were genuinely embarrassed by what Pruitt and the staff were up to and wanted to do the right thing. But I’m sure the no buyout had some to do with it as well. It’s tough to say for sure, but either way I think they did the right thing.
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No there's no way they just did this out of embarrassment of what Pruitt and staff did. Let's be honest here because if Pruitt and staff had gone 7-3 instead of 3-7 this whole thing would have never seen the light of day.
 
#41
#41
The title of this thread is a joke. You don't try to cover up this stuff. That's why people were fired. It's also why those coaches shuffled off to the nfl. Avoid the ncaa
 
#42
#42
Self reporting was the right thing regardless of whether Pruitt's buyout was a factor. The sad part are all the unknowns in dealing with the "kangaroo court" aka the NCAA. Missouri also did all the right things but the resulting punishment from the NCAA bordered on absurdity.
 
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#43
#43
VFL-82-JP said:
It has been said on this board a few different times that our program should've hidden the violations, tried to skate past outside notice.

Frequently, when that assertion is made, it is accompanied by hints that the only reason we acknowledged the scandal was to fire Pruitt for cause, avoiding any buyout.

Like this, from Chatta420:


I don't believe Chatta420 is right. I don't think most of us do believe that would have been the right thing to do. But that's why this poll exists; to find out.

So this poll is about both those issues. What do you think?
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They could not keep it quiet since it had
been leaked. They may have attempted to keep it under wraps IMO otherwise. We’ll never know for certain.
 
#45
#45
VFL-82-JP said:
It has been said on this board a few different times that our program should've hidden the violations, tried to skate past outside notice.
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We kept it hidden for a few weeks until someone went rogue and informed the press. How could you keep it hidden anymore after that? They were forced to announce and the consulting firm suggested they cooperate with the NCAA.
 
#46
#46
Trying to cover it up worked well for Bruce a few years back.....

Who blew the whistle on Freeze? Inside or outside? Did Ole Miss try to cover it up?

Does anyone know if our 51 issues involve 51 players or are there multiples.
 
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#47
#47
CR-vol said:
No there's no way they just did this out of embarrassment of what Pruitt and staff did. Let's be honest here because if Pruitt and staff had gone 7-3 instead of 3-7 this whole thing would have never seen the light of day.
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Maybe but it depends on the person who leaked it to the press.
 
#49
#49
Gandalf said:
Not really - every other major program pays for play. Since Nieds and Pruitt both came from Alabama you can be pretty sure thats exactly what they do there but either they got sloppy here or we are simply not set up systematically at the same level as these other programs like Bama and GA so that information like this simply never escapes because EVERYONE, from the admin to the local media is in on it and remains willfully blind to it.
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Right. We just had one or more in the organization that Pruitt or someone ticked off and who then leaked it to the press and/or forwarded it to Plowman. It’s simply bad luck, it could of happened at any other university by people like-minded.
 
#50
#50
Hmm 12+m on buyout vs a couple yr bowl ban on an under performing team. Its gonna be 3-5 yr rebuild with firing or showing cause. Saved 12+ m.
 
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