NCAA has spoken: Now what?

Doug Jones, retired mentor of big investors and dependable reader of westwords, congratulated Phillip Fulmer for hiring the only Alabama guy who isn’t smart enough to get away with cheating.

Vince Vawter, famous author, former editor and another thoughtful reader, said if Tennessee cheated as charged, “We sure were lousy at it.”

Virgil Mincy, original commentator in the westwords family, dusted off Sir Walter Scott: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”

Virgil said it was faint praise, indeed, to claim we are not as bad as Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi State, Mississippi and Kentucky.

“Sort of like telling your girlfriend she sweats less than any other fat girl you know.”

Tennessee is today pondering how hot will be the heat in the conclusion of this NCAA recruiting case – current talk of the town, school-record 18 charges, most, maybe all, discovered and reported by the university.

Jeremy Pruitt and associates inflicted more damage on the Volunteers than previous NCAA skirmishes combined. Way back then, some violations were misinterpretations of vague rules. Some were attempts to take advantage of loopholes. Bruce Pearl lied for almost no reason.

In this case, Pruitt or somebody assembled a dishonesty squadron. This set of sins wasn’t the work of a wild-eyed booster who lost perspective. This was an organization thing with assigned roles and salaries. The NCAA says some $60,000 went several different directions, toward recruiting prospects, influencing their families and fulfilling promises to players on the team.

Terminated upon discovery were the boss plus defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley, inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer, outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton, director of player personnel Drew Hughes, director of recruiting Bethany Gunn, assistant director of recruiting Chantryce Boone and an unidentified student assistant.

Documents say Niedermeyer, Felton and Gunn gave false or misleading information to the university and NCAA investigators. That is more serious than money.

Casey Pruitt, Jeremy’s wife, was a surprise name in the list of allegations. She helped football mothers with a few thousand here and a few thousand there, for car payments and apartment deposits and a couple of outings for prettier finger nails.

Maybe Casey shouldn’t have been a surprise. She has experience in the recruiting field. She worked in NCAA rules compliance at Troy and Florida State. That’s where she met Jeremy.

Niedermeyer in the neighborhood was certainly no surprise. He was national recruiter of the year 2019-2020. He was the primary recruiter for 10 Volunteers, twice as many as any other assistant.

Among his signees were five-star offensive tackle Darnell Wright and four-star linebackers Henry To’o To’o and Quavaris Crouch. They went away when the fire broke out.

At age 30, Niedermeyer was said to be on a meteoric rise in the coaching industry.

Considering that he came from Eagle River, Alaska, with no legendary connections, that he played at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, stayed a season as graduate assistant, moved up to East Texas Baptist University, it was interesting that he suddenly became a success at Georgia – when Pruitt was defensive coordinator.

When Pruitt returned to Alabama, Niedermeyer joined the Crimson Tide. When Pruitt got the Tennessee job, Niedermeyer was among his first hires. Recruiting was what he did best.

Recruiting was what Pruitt and most of his helpers did best. His 2018 Vols were 5-7. There were two late-season shockers. Missouri scored 50. Vanderbilt defeated Tennessee, 38-13.

After the stunning loss to Georgia State in the 2019 opener, the Vols improved. Their 8-5 record earned a trip to the Gator Bowl. They beat Indiana. Fulmer awarded the coach a raise. Nick Saban predicted greatness for Jeremy.

Regression was waiting around the corner. The 2020 season fell to 3-7. The Vols lost six in a row. They did beat Vandy.

Donde Plowman

Chancellor Donde Plowman got a tip about transgressions. She was surprised. She immediately ordered an internal investigation and hired a million-dollar law firm to assist. Results were stunning. She cleaned house and shared information with the NCAA.

“In every step of this process, we took quick and decisive actions that exemplified the longstanding values of the NCAA …” Plowman said.

Critics said Donde knew nothing about football and should never have surrendered the fate of the Volunteers to the NCAA. In fact, she may have launched a lifeboat.

The NCAA, trying to survive, is revising its constitution to favor institutional responsibility, self-detection, accountability, cooperation and involvement of schools’ chief executives. The organization finally seems to grasp that slow investigations and slower judgments unfairly punish new players and new coaches who had nothing to do with violations.

Plowman recognized what is to come. Tennessee’s corrective action went beyond where the NCAA is going. Enforcement staff recognized the university’s “exemplary cooperation” and said the way the chancellor handled proceedings should be the standard for future inquiries.

That was encouraging. If the NCAA judges this case by forthcoming standards, UT could escape the worst punishment. If kind words prove to be nothing more than politeness and enforcement goes by rules in place when alleged crimes were committed, there may be hell to pay.

Marvin West welcomes reader comments or questions. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com