PAT FORDE: The penalty will be really interesting. This is where Tennessee may get lucky twice here. First of all, they were able to rigorously investigate this largely not because they wanted to get to the bottom of it or because they didn't want to pay Jeremy Pruitt $12.6 million as a buyout, which by the way, that buyout figure went up when the great Phil Fulmer, truly one of the great administrators in college history, gave Jeremy Pruitt a raise after his second season and an extension.
A season in which they lost to Georgia State. Not Georgia, but Georgia State. He still got a raise in an extension, and so that upped the price. So yeah, all right, now all of a sudden, we want to get rid of him, but we don't want to pay. Oh, well, we've got these violations. Yes, let's look into that.
So they get credit for exemplary cooperation, which OK, fine. They did at least look under the rug to find the reasons they found. But then they're going to get lucky on the back end, probably, because we are heading towards a overhaul of the NCAA manual that it will include infractions and will likely lessen the probability of postseason bans. So this kind of thing that would normally be a multi-year postseason ban.
I mean, the head coach is handing out cash. Maybe a no postseason ban. I think there will still be sanctions. I think there will be significant sanctions, but they may actually get to play in bowl games this year, next year, and the year after and forever.
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