Tennessee AD Danny White gets remarkably candid about battle with the NCAA
Tennessee Vols athletic director Danny White isn't messing around. White was incredibly candid on Thursday afternoon in a statement he released regarding the NCAA's current investigation into Tennessee's NIL dealings — unlike the NCAA's previous investigation centering on Tennessee's recruiting misdeeds under former head coach Jeremy Pruitt, when White wouldn't comment publicly. Here's White's statement, […]
Tennessee Vols athletic director Danny White isn't messing around.
White was incredibly candid on Thursday afternoon in a statement he released regarding the NCAA's current investigation into Tennessee's NIL dealings — unlike the NCAA's previous investigation centering on Tennessee's recruiting misdeeds under former head coach Jeremy Pruitt, when White wouldn't comment publicly.
Here's White's statement, in which he accuses the NCAA of "moving the goal posts" after not finding a single NIL violation.
White then points out that this is essentially why the NCAA is focused on applying old booster bylaws to collectives (which is where the private jet that Nico Iamaleava allegedly flew on comes into play).
The NCAA generally does not comment on infractions cases because there is a rule against it; however, that has not stopped them in the past from leaking information to the media as they did this week about us. Their actions made this ill-conceived investigation public and forced us to defend ourselves. It is clear that the NCAA staff does not understand what is happening at the campus level all over the country in the NIL space. After reviewing thousands of Tennessee coach and personnel phone records, NCAA investigators didn't find a single NIL violation, so they moved the goalpost to fit a predetermined outcome. They are stating that the nebulous, contradictory NIL guidelines (written by the NCAA not the membership) don't matter and applying the old booster bylaws to collectives. If that's the case, then 100% of the major programs in college athletics have significant violations. This is obviously silly and not productive, as is blaming the membership whenever they are challenged. We need to be spending our time and energy on solutions to better organize college athletics in the NIL era – something that NCAA leadership failed to do back in 2021. Student-athletes, prospective stu-dent-athletes, coaches, and administrators across the country deserve better, and I refuse to allow the NCAA to irrationally use Tennessee as an example for their own agenda.
This sounds like a witch hunt, which is exactly how I described it earlier on Thursday in a strongly worded column (that can be read here).
Tennessee isn't backing down. And Vols fans should be proud that their athletic director went straight gangster on the NCAA on Thursday afternoon.
