Jeremy Pruitt is suing the NCAA for $100 million for lost and future wages, accusing the organization of conspiring with the University of Tennessee making him possibly the “last coach in America to be punished for impermissible player benefits.”
Pruitt’s lawsuit, first reported by YahooSports and obtained by The Associated Press, was filed Wednesday in DeKalb County Circuit Court in northeast Alabama, about 170 miles south of Knoxville. The lawsuit also accuses the NCAA of negligence and Tennessee of limiting the investigation into rules violations before his hiring.
“Jeremy Pruitt is one of the coaches who has been subject to an unfair, wrongful, and inconsistent NCAA investigation and ruling with potentially career-ending penalties,” according to the lawsuit. “The NCAA conspired with the University of Tennessee (“UT”) and others to make Jeremy the sacrificial lamb for conduct that long preceded his tenure at UT.”
When the NCAA punished Tennessee in July 2023, the sprawling report specifically called out Pruitt for his personal involvement and that “the former head coach violated head coach responsibility rules.” Four of his former staffers reached agreements with the NCAA’s enforcement staff and were given show-cause orders.
“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,” the NCAA said in a statement Thursday. “In this case, the Committee on Infractions found violations and assigned penalties, both of which were affirmed by the Infractions Appeals Committee.”
Tennessee fired Pruitt and nine others Jan. 18, 2021, for cause after an internal investigation found what the university chancellor called “serious violations of NCAA rules.” Chancellor Donde Plowman said Pruitt was responsible for overseeing the program. Tennessee had been conducting an internal investigation since a tip Nov. 13 about alleged recruiting violations. Plowman called the infractions “serious violations of NCAA rules” at a news conference.
Pruitt’s lawsuit says Plowman told him Jan. 18 that “Jeremy, we know you haven’t done anything wrong.”
He was hired in December 2017 after a tumultuous search cost athletic director John Currie his job with former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer taking over. Pruitt’s lawsuit alleges the new coach learned less than one week after being hired “that payments were being made to some players” despite being against NCAA rules at that time. Pruitt reported what he learned to Fulmer, and the lawsuit says Fulmer told Pruitt that “he would handle it” and deal with the compliance department.
The lawsuit also alleges that Pruitt learned after being fired that one or more people inside the Tennessee athletics departments or boosters “had systematically engaged in making payments to players at a time when NCAA rules did not allow such payments.”
The NCAA found that Pruitt or his wife, Casey, were involved in impermissible payments to two prospects who later signed with Tennessee. The mother of one player received $6,000 from Pruitt’s wife as a down payment on a car.
Pruitt’s lawsuit accuses the NCAA and Tennessee of a “farcical hearing” to determine if Pruitt violated any rules when the NCAA had a “direct financial stake” in the outcome with Tennessee’s “vested interest in the pre-determined outcome of the one-sided ‘investigation’ so that it could justify its failure to pay Jeremy the millions of dollars due under his buyout and other incentives stipulated in his contract.”
An attorney originally promised a lawsuit in October 2021 over the $12.6 million buyout in the coach’s contract. Tennessee never paid the buyout, telling the NCAA that Pruitt and the others fired “repeatedly deceived” administrators and compliance staff overseeing the program.
In July 2023, the NCAA fined Tennessee more than $8 million and issued a scathing report outlining more than 200 infractions during Pruitt’s three-year tenure. The Volunteers escaped a postseason ban. The sprawling report over 80 pages long said Tennessee committed 18 Level I violations, the most severe, and said most involved recruiting infractions and direct payments to athletes and their families — benefits that totaled approximately $60,000.
Pruitt was given a six-year show cause penalty. He spent 2021 as a senior defensive assistant with the NFL’s New York Giants. He returned to his high school alma mater in July 2023 to teach physical education and coach junior high basketball after the NCAA imposed a six-year show cause against him for rules violations.
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