The Tennessee Volunteers football program dropped from the top 10 in all-time victories after the school was forced to vacate wins recorded in two seasons under Jeremy Pruitt as part of the sanctions handed down Friday by the NCAA for recruiting violations.
All 11 wins in the 2019 and 2020 Tennessee football seasons have subsequently been struck from the record books.
The vacated wins do not change from victories to defeats and opponents do not get to count them as wins either. Instead, it is as if the games never happened. In the record book, the Vols’ record will change from 8-5 to 0-5 in 2019 and from 3-7 to 0-7 in 2020 — giving them two-straight winless campaigns.
Pruitt’s record at the school will drop from 16-19 to 5-19. His victories against Chattanooga, Indiana (TaxSlayer Bowl), Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Alabama-Birmingham and Vanderbilt in 2019 are gone. The Vols’ wins over Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt in 2020 also are stricken from the record.
Ineligible players appeared in all those vacated victories, a university spokesperson confirmed. In addition to the vacated wins, those players’ statistics will also be removed from the books. The statistics of eligible players and any awards given to them, however, will be retained.
The players’ names were not included in the NCAA report and they were redacted from Tennessee’s investigation documents.
Before the wins were vacated, Tennessee had climbed into the top 10 all-time in college football history. The Volunteers had a record of 867-410-3, tied with Southern Cal at No. 10. Now the Volunteers drop to No. 11 with an all-time record of 856-410-53.
The penalty is part of Tennessee’s five-year probation, which also includes 28 scholarship cuts, recruiting restrictions and a fine of more than $8 million — but not a postseason ban.
Pruitt got a six-year show-cause penalty. Seven of his former Tennessee assistant coaches and staff members also got multiyear show-cause orders. A show-cause penalty means a university cannot hire a coach or recruiter without being penalized during the length of the ban unless the program gets NCAA approval. Pruitt’s show-cause includes a 100% suspension for his first year of employment should an NCAA school hire in him in any athletics position.
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