Former Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt, his wife and several members of his football staff provided about $60,000 of impermissible benefits and recruiting inducements to more than two dozen recruits and their families over a three-year period, according to a notice of allegations from the NCAA, a copy of which was obtained by Sports Illustrated through a public records request.
The 51-page document sent to the school Friday outlines 18 separate allegations of blatant recruiting misconduct from Pruitt and his staff transpiring as early as September 2018, his 10th month on the job, and extending through the COVID-19 recruiting dead period of 2020. All of the allegations are Level I, considered the most egregious on the NCAA’s infractions scale.
In the most serious of allegations, Pruitt and his staff hosted at least six prospects and their families on nine weekend unofficial visits during the yearlong dead period, providing them with lodging, meals, transportation, household goods and even furniture that totaled $12,000. Pruitt himself is charged with having made cash payments of $3,000 and $6,000 to two prospects’ mothers, the first used to assist in medical bills and the other for a downpayment on a vehicle.
