Here's how much money Tennessee spent on lawyers to combat Jeremy Pruitt, NCAA

CINCINNATI − The University of Tennessee, after spending more than $1.5 million on legal fees, hopes to get a return on its investment by receiving leniency from the NCAA at a hearing over a high-profile recruiting scandal during Jeremy Pruitt’s tenure as football coach.

Before the hearing, which began Wednesday at 8:30 a.m., UT Chancellor Donde Plowman, athletics director Danny White, former athletics director Phillip Fulmer and others gathered in a meeting room to game-plan with their high-priced lawyers from Bond, Schoeneck & King, a firm that specializes in NCAA infractions cases.

They marched into the hearing room together.

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Lawyers from the firm Bond, Schoeneck & King logged almost 4,900 billable hours from late 2020, when UT first tapped legal assistance, through November 2022, according to university records provided to Knox News.

UT files quarterly expenses for legal fees. But invoices are not yet available for the past four months.

Predictably, lawyers worked the most during UT’s internal investigation, which dug up new violations that NCAA investigators had not discovered and led to Pruitt’s firing for cause in January 2021. UT paid $189,171 in legal fees in that month alone.

Fees spiked again when lawyers constructed the university’s formal response to NCAA allegations in November 2022. UT paid the BSK firm $173,230 in the preceding three months.

So more legal fees have accumulated heading into the three-day hearing, where UT, Pruitt and former defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley will face an NCAA Committee on Infractions panel for their part in 18 highest-level violations alleged to have been committed from 2018-21.

Here’s how much Tennessee spent on legal fees

University records provided to Knox News show the breakdown of legal fees paid to the Bond, Schoeneck & King firm during the NCAA probe. Invoices were changed from monthly to quarterly in 2021.

• November (2020): $12,876.70
• December (2020): $93,765.15
• January (2021): $189,171.96
• February (2021): $92,268.08
• March (2021): $109,096.10
• April (2021): $91,344.00
• May (2021): $77,211.57
• June (2021): $90,720.18
• July (2021): $99,728.67
• August (2021): $87,285.04
• Sept-Nov (2021): $134,170.93
• Dec.-Feb. (2021-22): $43,191.25      
• March-May (2022): $97,703.75
• June-Aug. (2022): $143,722.36
• Sept-Nov. (2022): $173,230.00
• TOTAL: $1,535,485.74

Here are the lawyers representing Tennessee

UT’s outside counsel is led by Michael Glazier, Kyle Skillman and Michael Sheridan, who specialize defending schools and individuals in NCAA investigations.

Glazier, who worked seven years on the NCAA’s enforcement staff, has represented universities in scores of NCAA cases since the 1980s. He assisted UT during the NCAA's probe of the athletic department that led to the 2011 firing of basketball coach Bruce Pearl.

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Skillman also advises NCAA institutions during enforcement investigations and helps universities investigate and report NCAA violations. Sheridan previously served as the NCAA’s associate director of enforcement, where he led investigations and delivered oral arguments on behalf of the NCAA in hearings like this one.

UT is also represented by general counsel Ryan Stinnett.

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Emailadam.sparks@knoxnews.com. Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing atknoxnews.com/subscribe.