Ex-Vols coach Pruitt sues NCAA, seeking $100 million - ESPN

Former Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA seeking $100 million and claims it conspired with the university to make him a «sacrificial lamb.»

Pruitt was fired for cause by Tennessee in January 2021 and didn't receive any of his $12.6 million buyout after an internal investigation revealed what chancellor Donde Plowman said were serious violations of NCAA rules. On July 14, 2023, the NCAA sentenced Pruitt to a six-year show cause penalty, including a yearlong suspension from coaching in games and recruiting off campus in his first year back should he return to coaching in college.

Pruitt has not coached in college football since. At least one other SEC school has shown interest in hiring Pruitt, sources told ESPN, but was dissuaded from doing so by superiors at its university and/or the conference office. Pruitt is currently helping coach his alma mater, Plainview High School in Alabama, with his father, Dale Pruitt.

In the lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday in DeKalb County, Alabama, Pruitt alleges that Tennessee was paying players before he was hired in December 2017, and that when he notified then-athletic director Phillip Fulmer of the illegal payments, Fulmer said «he would handle it» through the university's compliance department.

Tennessee issued a response Thursday through a spokesperson that read: «The university is confident in the actions taken in the Pruitt case. We will continue to prioritize our student-athletes and winning with integrity.»

Pruitt could not be reached for comment.

This isn't the first time Pruitt has turned to the legal system. In 2021, about nine months after his firing, an attorney representing Pruitt at the time, Michael Lyons, threatened a