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It wasn’t immediately clear almost three years ago that Jeremy Pruitt’s Tennessee football staff had committed numerous NCAA violations until an inside joke among coaches alerted investigators, documents reveal.
A student worker in the UT football program joked that assistant coach Brian Niedermeyer couldn’t take a pay cut during the COVID-19 pandemic because he needed to pay for nail salon visits for recruits and their families.
Knox News obtained the report of UT’s internal investigation through an open records request. It reveals the events that blew open the case, which led to Pruitt being fired for cause and now receiving a six-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA, which was announced Friday.
Seven UT football assistants and staff member also received show-cause penalties. A show-cause penalty means a university cannot hire a coach or recruiter without NCAA approval during the length of the ban. Pruitt’s show-cause includes a 100% suspension for the first year of employment should an NCAA school hire in him in any athletics position.
UT football was put on five years of probation, including 28 scholarship cuts, recruiting restrictions, vacated wins and a large fine. But it did not get a postseason ban.
On Nov. 13, 2020, UT Chancellor Donde Plowman’s office received a tip from an athletics department staff member. That person said they overheard members of the football program claim that some players were being “paid.”
UT alerted the NCAA and opened an internal investigation. Six days later, the university hired Bond, Schoeneck and King, a law firm specializing in NCAA infractions cases, to investigate further.
That much has been known since January 2021, when Plowman announced the probe and Pruitt’s firing.But the BSK firm’s report reveals where the case took a turn.
“An athletics department staff member reported that during a discussion among football staff members in the football office, an undergraduate student worker suggested that Niedermeyer could not afford to take a voluntary COVID-related pay cut because, in order or substance, he needed money to pay for nail salon visits for family members of visiting prospective student-athletes,” BSK report said.
Exclusive coverage: Tennessee, Jeremy Pruitt learn NCAA penalties
Joke wasn’t funny to investigators
In November 2020, lawyers with BSK and UT, as well as compliance directors, interviewed 13 individuals to start the investigation, including players, coaches, football staff members and student workers. But that didn’t initially bear fruit in the probe.
When investigators heard about the offhand joke, they interviewed the student worker, who confirmed its validity.
The student worker had been asked by a football recruiting staff member to arrange for a recruit and his mother to get free nail treatments at La La Nails in Knoxville during a COVID recruiting dead period.
The names of the student worker and recruit were redacted from the report. There’s no indication that La La Nails knew the treatments violated NCAA rules.
NCAA investigators found that Niedermeyer, assistant coach Shelton Felton and recruiting director Bethany Gunn paid for the nail salon visit and other accommodations.
Niedermeyer and Felton were among eight UT football coaches who were asked to accept a pay cut during COVID and declined. Bank records show that Niedermeyer made large cash withdrawals from an ATM in the dates surrounding impermissible recruiting visits, the report says.
Paying for the nail treatments was an NCAA violation, and so was hosting the recruit and his family during the dead period.
Phone records for the student worker and recruiting staff members confirmed those violations and many more.
Whistleblower still feels toll of reporting tip
The student worker’s joke accelerated the investigation. But the initial tip to Plowman’s office put the case in motion.
Almost three years later, that whistleblower is still feeling the emotional toll. That was referenced by Plowman in her closing remarks to an NCAA Committee on Infractions panel in a closed-door hearing in April.
The text of Plowman’s closing statement was shared in a university email and obtained by Knox News through an open records request.
“Last week, the person in my office who made me aware of the original compliance tip came to me distraught. They said they had come to the realization that they should have kept it to themselves and not put me in the difficult position of having to decide how to respond to it,” Plowman told the panel.
“They were filled with guilt and apologized for telling me about the tip. It was gut-wrenching to hear a person of high integrity question their decision to do the right thing. This case has ripple effects far beyond what’s most obvious.”
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Emailadam.sparks@knoxnews.com. Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing atknoxnews.com/subscribe.
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