Four Former UT Football Staffers Receive NCAA Penalties for Recruiting Violations

Four former Tennessee staff members are expected to receive multiyear show-cause penalties from the NCAA stemming from their roles in recruiting violations committed under former coach Jeremy Pruitt, sources tell Sports Illustrated.

Inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer, outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton, director of player personnel Drew Hughes and student assistant Michael Magness are set to receive show-cause penalties of three-to-five years in negotiated resolutions they struck with the association.

A show-cause penalty is an individual sanction that, for the most part, keeps a person from working within college athletics for a certain period of time. The penalty requires a school to “show” why they are hiring such a person in a presentation before NCAA leaders. Most schools avoid such hires.

Pruitt, as well as assistant Derrick Ansley, were not involved in the resolutions.

Also not involved is the school itself. The university and NCAA have not come to an agreement on a resolution despite months of negotiations. However, the association is bifurcating the case, a new method of bringing closure to some parties in an investigation while other elements of a case remain contested. Bifurcation was one of the recommendations made last summer by the NCAA transformation committee to speed up the association’s dawdling infractions process.

The association can now zero in on those outstanding parties who are disputing findings or contesting potential resolutions, which are expected to include Pruitt, Ansley and Tennessee.

The school received its Notice of Allegations in July, spelling out $60,000 worth of impermissible benefits and recruiting inducements provided to prospects over a three-year period by Pruitt, his wife and several football staff members, all of whom were fired in January 2021 after the university’s internal investigation uncovered alleged wrongdoing.

As part of the negotiated resolutions, Niedermeyer, Felton, Hughes and Magness acknowledged wrongdoing, while Niedermeyer and Felton specifically admitted to violating the NCAA’s policy on “ethical conduct,” which includes giving false or misleading information to the university and NCAA investigators.

None of the former staff members are believed to be coaching in college. Niedermeyer briefly served as a defensive coordinator at IMG Academy in Florida last year. Felton is a head coach at Valdosta High in Georgia, and Hughes is in his second season as player personnel director for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Ansley was recently promoted to defensive coordinator for the L.A. Chargers, while Pruitt is out of coaching.

There were 18 separate allegations of blatant recruiting misconduct from Pruitt and his staff transpiring as early as September 2018, his 10th month on the job, and extending through the COVID-19 football dead period of ’20. All of the allegations are Level I, considered the most egregious on the NCAA’s infractions scale.

In the most serious of allegations, Pruitt and staff hosted at least six prospects and their families on nine unofficial weekend visits during the yearlong dead period, providing them with lodging, meals, transportation, household goods and furniture that totaled $12,000. Pruitt himself is charged with having made cash payments of $3,000 and $6,000 to two prospects’ mothers, the first used to assist with medical bills and the other for a down payment on a vehicle.

Despite the 18 Level I violations—one of the highest totals in recent years—the university was not hit with the “lack of institutional control” ruling, largely because of its transparency and integrity in promptly handling the wrongdoing, NCAA documents say.

The institution showed strong cooperation with investigators, conducted a thorough internal investigation of its own and took immediate steps in dismissing the culprits and sanctioning itself. The university docked itself 12 football scholarships last season, as well as imposed several more recruiting penalties.

Despite the NCAA’s lauding Tennessee’s handling of the case, the lack of a resolution and apparent move toward a contested hearing before the Committee on Infractions indicates that significant sanctions still could be in play for the school and Pruitt. The timetable for a hearing and a ruling is unknown.