Tennessee football: Five questions for Josh Heupel at 2022 SEC Media Days

3. Is there any update on the NCAA’s side of the investigation?

It was a huge relief for Tennessee football fans everywhere when the internal investigation into the program produced no postseason ban this past year. Sure, you could say it was just an internal investigation, but many schools institute postseason bans to avoid further punishment by the NCAA, and Josh Heupel’s first year would’ve been the time to do it.

As a result, coming to the conclusion that they didn’t need to institute a ban means the program is pretty confident in its standing with the NCAA moving forward. However, both investigations launched in December of 2020. Jeremy Pruitt was fired in January of 2021. UT’s investigation into itself ended in November of 2021.

What in the world is taking the NCAA so long to wrap this up? Sure, the charges were serious in terms of paying players, but there’s no way it should keep dragging out. It cost the Vols in their 2022 recruiting class, and it could be a slight drawback in their 2022 class.

Derek Dooley had to deal with the same thing over a decade before. Lane Kiffin’s one year with Tennessee football produced a barrage of NCAA violations, and the investigations lasted through the summer of 2011, even though Dooley took over in the winter of 2010. It wrecked two of his recruiting classes. Heupel should have some information on this, and the public should know.