Tennessee football: New NCAA constitution shows Vols inadvertently finessed alleged cheating under Jeremy Pruitt

Fair or not, Tennessee football pulled off the ultimate finesse move. Programs, no matter how big, have been getting in trouble for cheating dating back 50 years, and almost all the major ones have been hit with probation or bowl bans. UT is one of the few that never has been hit with a bowl ban.

Well, a newly ratified NCAA constitution means they likely never will. The new constitution altered language to place an emphasis on punishing individuals responsible for rules violations committed rather than programs. It’s a way to make sure programs aren’t put on probation for violations committed by nobody with that program anymore.

Plenty of programs deserved this consideration in the past. Tennessee football may be among the first to receive it in the future after never being hit with a bowl ban in the past. Remember, the Vols are still not in the clear from the Jeremy Pruitt scandal last year.

Back in November, UT’s self-conducted investigation into Pruitt’s alleged cheating ended with no self-imposed postseason ban. The NCAA always could come down retroactively, though, and hand one to them, even though Pruitt, athletic director Phillip Fulmer, and almost every player seemingly involved with the scandal are all gone.

If that happened to the Vols, they would have hardly been the first program to suffer that fate. Heck, one of Johnny Majors’ SEC Championships, back in 1990, was by default, as it came only because the Florida Gators, in their first year under Steve Spurrier, were on probation due to a violation that involved none of the players or coaches on that team.

Beyond what happened there, we know the scandal of Fulmer, Logan Young, Albert Means and the Alabama Crimson Tide in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Bama fans to this day are thoroughly convinced Fulmer went out of his way to turn them in to cover his own tracks.

Then there were all the NCAA violations committed in one year under Lane Kiffn, and the Vols just barely avoided a bowl ban. Time after time, they played with fire, but they never got burned in this way. Pruitt was almost the first to do that to Tennessee football.

Instead, though, UT may be in good shape going forward. Unless somebody found to receive improper benefits from Pruitt is still playing on the Vols, there’s no way to justify, with this new constitution, giving the Vols a bowl ban. As a result, they appear to be in the clear.

This is just another step forward for Josh Heupel and Tennessee football as they enter 2022 with tons of expectations and promise. Moving past Pruitt and what happened last year was a big deal down the stretch of the season. Now, they are almost certain to move past it permanently.