Claiming lost wages, former Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt is suing the NCAA for $100 million. Pruitt sued the NCAA in DeKalb County, Alabama, claiming that the NCAA worked with Tennessee to make an example out of him.
Former Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt has sued the NCAA in DeKalb County, Alabama, claiming that the association “conspired with Tennessee” to make him the “sacrificial lamb” for rules violations resulting in his firing and a 6-year showcause.
He’s claiming $100M in lost wages. pic.twitter.com/H0b69vvAK5
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) March 27, 2025
Pruitt’s claim reads like this. It also claims that the violations against Pruitt were made null following the 2021 ruling to allow student athletes to make money off of NIL.
“With a direct financial stake in the outcome, and in the face of a glaring conflict of interest, the NCAA empowered the University of Tennessee to use its own attorneys to investigate the University, including Pruitt, and to determine the scope of the investigation into alleged rules violations during Coach Pruitt’s tenure as head coach,” the filing reads. “UT had a vested interest in the pre-determined outcome of the one-sided ‘investigation,’ so that it could justify its failure to pay Jeremy the millions of dollars due under his buyout and other incentives stipulated in his contract.”
“Jeremy Pruitt may be the last coach in America to be punished for impermissible player benefits.”
He also claims Tennessee was paying players before he arrived in 2017, and that he notified then AD Phillip Fulmer of the actions. Pruitt states that Fulmer told him that he would ‘handle it.’
Fulmer retired at the time of Pruitt’s firing.
Pruitt was fired from Tennessee following the 2020 season and didn’t receive a dime of his $12+ million buyout. The NCAA found Tennessee responsible for over 200 individual infractions, which included 18 Level 1 violations. According to the NCAA’s findings, Pruitt, members of his staff and even his wife were handing out money for a variety of things, including car payments, down payments, medical bills and gas money to recruits and their families.
The NCAA hit Jeremy Pruitt with a six-year show cause. After a brief role as an analyst with the New York Giants, Pruitt landed back in Alabama as a high school gym teacher and basketball coach.
Tennessee was placed on five-year probation and docked 28 scholarships, in addition to a $9 million fine. Tennessee was also forced to vacate all wins from the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Pruitt was 16-19 during his time at Tennessee, notching one winning season and bowl win in 2019 (Gator vs. Indiana). The program has since rapidly been cleaned up by new AD Danny White, who brought in Josh Heupel who found immediate success despite the lingering effects and penalties of the Pruitt mess.