Former Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt files lawsuit against NCAA
Former Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt is suing the NCAA over the fallout from his Tennessee firing and the subsequent investigation into alleged recruiting violations.
The lawsuit stems from his firing by Tennessee due to NCAA recruiting violations that involved payment to players and prospects. In the lawsuit, Pruitt alleges that Tennessee's chancellor told him, “Jeremy, we know you haven’t done anything wrong" during the meeting in which he was fired. The lawsuit is alleging that Pruitt was made to be "the sacrificial lamb for conduct that long preceded his tenure at UT."
Pruitt's attorneys Joseph M. Cloud, David W. Holt and Allen Dodd Jr. issued a statement to The Gadsden Times, part of the Paste BN Network.
"We stand wholeheartedly behind Coach Pruitt's claims as detailed in the complaint," the statement read. "While we appreciate the public's interest in this matter, we do not intend to try Coach Pruitt's case in the media. Coach Pruitt's claims deserve to be evaluated by an Alabama jury. We intend to give Jeremy the fair and impartial forum that the NCAA would not allow."
The NCAA also issued a statement in response to the lawsuit: “NCAA rules are proposed and adopted by member schools and penalties for violations are imposed by a committee of representatives from NCAA member schools and conferences as well as individuals from the public who have legal training. In this case, the Committee on Infractions found violations and assigned penalties, both of which were affirmed by the Infractions Appeals Committee.”
Tennessee, in a statement, said it is "confident in the actions taken in the Pruitt case. We will continue to prioritize our student-athletes and winning with integrity."
Jeremy Pruitt claims he told Phillip Fulmer about improper payments to players at Tennessee
Pruitt, who is currently helping coach his alma mater, Plainview High School in Alabama, with his father Dale Pruitt, filed the suit in Dekalb County, Alabama, on Wednesday. Pruitt was coach at Tennessee from December 2017 to January 2021, going 16-19 in three seasons.
Pruitt claims in the lawsuit that less than a week after being hired, he "discovered that payments were being made to some players" and informed then-athletics director Phillip Fulmer. According to the lawsuit, Fulmer told Pruitt that "he would handle it" and would deal with the Tennessee compliance department.
Pruitt was hit with a six-year show-clause order by the NCAA, meaning any school that tries to hire him in that period would need to make a case to the NCAA why he should be allowed to coach. Pruitt claims in the lawsuit that multiple schools have reached out, including two in the state of Alabama.
What Jeremy Pruitt is seeking in his lawsuit
In the lawsuit, Pruitt is claiming he suffered damages including lost wages and other compensation, future lost wages and other compensation, damage to his reputation, emotional distress and mental anguish and other compensatory damages, all related to NCAA actions. He is claiming that the damages will exceed $100 million, but will allow a jury to deem an amount it sees fit.
The lawsuit alleges negligence, wantonness, tortious interference with existing and prospective business relationships, conspiracy and bad faith on the part of the NCAA and eight unnamed defendants, identified as "fictitious defendants One through Eight" in the suit.
The lawsuit also alleges the NCAA allowed the University of Tennessee "to use its own attorneys to investigate its own misconduct," with the NCAA limiting the scope of the investigation to anything after September 2018. After that date, Pruitt no longer had anyone on his staff from before his time there: The lawsuits claims that "efforts to expand the inquiry to show that violations of the rules had existed long before Jeremy came to Tennessee were not permitted."
Pruitt's suit alleges that his attorney wasn't allowed to present arguments in his defense after the NCAA and Tennessee quickly agreed to a fine of $9 million to settle the infractions case.
The NCAA's committee on infractions found in 2023 that Pruitt made two cash payments to mothers of players in the amounts of $6,000 and $3,000. The suit alleges "the evidence supporting those allegations was so sparse as to be absurd."
The committee found Pruitt had "failed to cooperate" with the investigation. His lawsuit claims that that allegation stemmed from Pruitt "denying any involvement with the payments."
Pruitt's suit also alleges the NCAA "intentionally interfered" with his ability to get a college coaching job due to the investigation and show-clause penalty.