What Tennessee AD Danny White said in 2022 about using NIL deals for recruiting
The Tennessee Vols are facing another NCAA investigation, just months after settling the Jeremy Pruitt NCAA recruiting investigation. This investigation centers around Tennessee's usage of NIL deals. Quarterback Nico Iamaleava, a former five-star recruit, is at the center of the investigation. Essentially, the NCAA is trying to crack down on programs that use NIL for […]
The Tennessee Vols are facing another NCAA investigation, just months after settling the Jeremy Pruitt NCAA recruiting investigation.
This investigation centers around Tennessee's usage of NIL deals. Quarterback Nico Iamaleava, a former five-star recruit, is at the center of the investigation.
Essentially, the NCAA is trying to crack down on programs that use NIL for "inducement". While it's legal for players to earn income on their name, image, and likeness, it's still illegal under NCAA rules for programs (or boosters/collectives) to pay a player to play for a program.
On Tuesday night, Spyre Sports, the collective that signed Iamaleava to an NIL deal in 2022, released a statement saying that nothing in Nico's NIL deal ties him to Tennessee.
That statement from Spyre Sports is in line with what Tennessee athletic director Danny White said back in 2022 about NIL deals and using them for recruiting.
"With the new Tennessee state law, we can now collaborate with them (collectives) in ways that weren’t permissible a month ago," said White in May, 2022 in an interview with VolQuest. "All along, they have been good community partners. We have a director of name, image and likeness who has experience in compliance and marketing. Her job is to focus on NIL—making sure we are educating Spyre and others who want to engage in that space on what the rules are and what the laws are."
"We couldn’t speak to them on collaboration for NIL deals (before state laws change)," continued White. "Now, we can for current student-athletes. There’s still an NCAA rule that specifically says we cannot be involved in any kind of NIL or any kind of inducement activity in recruiting. So, there’s a line between recruiting and current student-athletes that we have been very strict about with our coaches and staff — and we will continue to be. I like where we are in that space."
Less than a month later, Vols head coach Josh Heupel told The Athletic that the coaching staff doesn't really have any interaction with Spyre Sports.
“We don’t really have any interaction with them,” said Heupel.
It wasn't until five months later, near the end of the 2022 season, that Heupel finally publicly endorsed Spyre Sports.
Tennessee was under the eye of the NCAA at the time due to the Pruitt investigation. So in other words, the Volunteers were being extremely careful.
The state of Tennessee along with the state of Virginia filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on Wednesday. This could be a watershed moment in college athletics. And it sounds like UT is going to be right at the center of it.
Fortunately for the Vols, it sounds like they took care of business in 2022, which should only strengthen their position in this looming battle against the NCAA.
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