KNOXVILLE – The University of Tennessee placed its athletic department on two years of probation and punished its football and men’s basketball programs with recruiting restrictions, school officials confirmed Friday afternoon.
According to an afternoon report in the Knoxville News Sentinel, which had obtained documents outlining the punishment through an open-records request, UT self-imposed the sanctions in May after responding to the Notice of Allegations the school received from the NCAA in February.
Once UT received the letter from the NCAA detailing the 10 major infractions charged against the men’s basketball program and two major infractions against the football program, the school had 90 days to respond. UT went before the NCAA Committee on Infractions June 11 in Indianapolis, and the COI will announce any further sanctions as early as next month during its unofficial window of 8-12 weeks.
Attempts by the Times Free Press to obtain the school’s full response to the NCAA were unsuccessful because the document won’t be available until Monday morning.
According to the News Sentinel report, the football staff had the number of days it could recruit during April’s evaluation period reduced by six, and only five coaches can make phone calls to recruits on Nov. 1, the first day of a contact period. New Volunteers basketball coach Cuonzo Martin and his staff cannot provide occasional off-campus meals during the next academic year.