Tennessee must vacate all 11 wins from 2019, 2020 seasons - ESPN

Tennessee's football program must vacate all 11 wins from the 2019 and 2020 seasons under former coach Jeremy Pruitt as part of the penalties handed down by the NCAA stemming from recruiting violations during Pruitt's three-year tenure, school officials told ESPN on Saturday.

Tennessee avoided a postseason ban but was hit with an $8 million fine by the NCAA — believed to be the largest ever levied in an NCAA infractions case — and placed on five years of probation, which includes the total reduction of 28 scholarships. The NCAA deemed that 16 players were ineligible when they played in those 2019 and 2020 games because of their involvement in what the NCAA said were more than 200 infractions committed during Pruitt's three seasons at Tennessee from 2018 through 2020. Tennessee's official record book will be changed to reflect that the Vols were 0-5 in 2019 and 0-7 in 2020, and Pruitt's final record at Tennessee will be 5-19.

The vacating of wins does not mean the opponents in those games are granted wins. Tennessee's all-time record now stands at 856-410-53, which drops the Vols out of the top 10 nationally in all-time wins.

Sources told ESPN that some of the players who were declared ineligible, including those who transferred to other schools, were later able to regain their eligibility by being granted immunity and cooperating with the NCAA in its investigation of Tennessee. Pruitt was given a six-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA and has not coached in college since being fired for cause at the end of the 2020 season. Pruitt, who did not receive any of his $12.6 million buyout, told ESPN he would decline comment at this time.

Kay Norton, president emerita at Northern Colorado and the chief hearing officer for the