Tennessee's chancellor becomes instant legend with epic letter to NCAA
Tennessee Vols chancellor Donde Plowman became an instant legend on Tuesday with her response to the NCAA in regards to a new investigation into UT's NIL deals. Sports Illustrated first reported the investigation. Plowman went scorched earth on Monday in a letter to NCAA president Charlie Baker, which was obtained by VolQuest and ESPN via […]
Tennessee Vols chancellor Donde Plowman became an instant legend on Tuesday with her response to the NCAA in regards to a new investigation into UT's NIL deals.
Sports Illustrated first reported the investigation.
Plowman went scorched earth on Monday in a letter to NCAA president Charlie Baker, which was obtained by VolQuest and ESPN via an open records request.
The leaders of intercollegiate athletics owe it to student-athletes and their families to establish clear rul and to act in their best interest. Instead, two and a half years of vague and contradictory NCAA memos emails and "guidance" about name, image and likeness (NIL) has created extraordinary chaos that student-athletes and institutions are struggling to navigate. In short, the NCAA is failing.
Earlier today, a team from the University of Tennessee met with members of your enforcement staff to discuss allegations the NCAA intends to bring against Tennessee related to NIL. We appreciate your staff listening to our arguments and agreeing to evaluate them. The NCAA's allegations are factually untrue and procedurally flawed. Moreover, it is intellectually dishonest for the NCAA enforcement sta to pursue infractions cases as if student-athletes have no NIL rights and as if institutions all have been functioning post-Alston with a clear and unchanging set of rules and willfully violating them.
It would have been my preference to discuss my concerns with you in person. Your recent testimony before Congress indicated you wanted to meet with as many member institutions and student-athletes possible to discuss issues associated with college sports. I am sharing my perspective in writing since my December request for you to meet with me and our Athletics Director, Danny White, was denied.
As you have seen in our previous dealings with the NCAA, when we are wrong at the University of Tennessee, we admit it. We spent more than $1 million on outside counsel to investigate previous problems discovered in our football program that were reported to me, personally, and self-reported th entire case to the NCAA. In fact, just last year, the Division I Committee on Infractions as well as the NCAA enforcement staff cited exemplary cooperation by the University of Tennessee and said we set the standard other schools should follow. It is inconceivable that our institution's leadership would be cited as an example of exemplary leadership in July 2023, then as a cautionary example of a lack of institutional control only six months later.
Continued…
It is intellectually dishonest for the NCAA staff to issue guidelines that say a third-party collective/business may meet with prospective student-athletes, discuss NIL, even enter into a contract with prospective student-athletes, but at the same time say that the collective may not engage in conversations that would be of a recruiting nature. Any discussion about NIL might factor into a prospective student-athlete's decision to attend an institution. This creates an inherently unworkable situation, and everyone knows it.
Student-athletes and their families deserve better than this, as do the universities and athletic departments trying to manage and follow the rules.
We emphasized to the NCAA enforcement staff that the actions they are considering are contradictory with and will undermine the vision and "new day" that you yourself have laid out for NIL.
The University of Tennessee has cooperated with the NCAA in the past when some of our coaches and their staff were in the wrong, and we will continue to do that. We have been held up as a model for how institutions should handle infractions. We have complied with NIL guidance as it came out. We will be resolute in protecting the rights of our student-athletes and in upholding the integrity of our institution.
The entire letter can be seen here.
It's clear that Tennessee isn't going to just lay down for the NCAA in this one. You never know what the outcome of an NCAA investigation will be, but Vols fans at least know that Plowman is ready for a fight.
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