Donde Plowman of Tennessee calls the NCAA “morally wrong” over the NIL investigation, as shown in an email.
The NCAA is “morally wrong” for saying that UT broke rules about giving athletes name, image, and likeness benefits, according to an email that Chancellor Donde Plowman sent to NCAA Chancellor Charlie Baker.
The email was sent on Monday, and Knox News got it through a public records request. In it, Plowman criticizes the NCAA for changing how it handles NIL all the time and for wanting to apply NIL rules to games that have already happened.
“The NCAA enforcement staff’s approach to date hurts more than just our school; it could also hurt a lot of student-athletes who haven’t done anything wrong—all because of the disagreements between adults,” Plowman wrote in an email to Baker.
No one can say that Donde Plowman, the chancellor of the University of Tennessee, is a one-trick pony.
This is something the NCAA can say about her. When Plowman first joined the NCAA, she seemed to be the perfect southern hostess.
When the NCAA looked into former UT football coach Jeremy Pruitt, she couldn’t have been nicer. She was glad to see the group in charge of college sports. “How can I help you?” was her main answer.
Before the College Football Association even caught wind of Pruitt’s many violations, Plowman took all the hard work.
The investigation into what happened at UT found embarrassing information about Pruitt and his staff’s inability to do their jobs, and they practically dragged it to NCAA headquarters.
After that, the NCAA praised UT for working with them and put most of the blame on Pruitt and his staff. Miss Congeniality has a sledgehammer now. She wants to get to the NCAA.
The Vols got away with nothing, Pruitt got a dreaded “show-cause” penalty, and UT didn’t have to pay to get rid of its failed coach. A lot of the praise for the good outcome should go to Plowman.
The NCAA has called UT again, and this time they have brought a different Plowman with them.
The fiercest lioness has taken the place of the southern hostess. It was her turn to take away the welcoming mat, slam the door, and say bad things about the NCAA.
Plowman then put the same people she had been nicer to than they deserved through a very harsh punishment. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has run college sports about as badly as Pruitt ran Tennessee’s football team.
I have given the chancellor a lot of praise for how she led UT through the minefields Pruitt left behind, but I like Donde better.
That could be given that she has been so harsh in her criticism of an institution that is known for being inconsistent and bad at what it does.
But I’m not going to waste time criticizing the NCAA when Plowman is ready and willing to do so, as shown by the email she sent to former Massachusetts governor and NCAA President Charles Baker. The email was given to Knox News through a public documents request.
According to Plowman’s letter to Baker, the NCAA has “caused chaos” or is “failing” in its handling of NIL. “As you have seen in previous dealings regarding the NCAA when we are mistaken at the University of the state of Tennessee, that we admit it,” Plowman said.
Plowman pointed out that Tennessee had worked with the NCAA before when it looked into several violations that happened under former head football teacher Jeremy Pruitt from 2018 to 2020. These violations led to the program being fined and limited in recruiting in July 2023.
“We paid more than $1 million for an outside lawyer to look into problems in our football game that were brought to my attention. I then self-reported the whole case to the NCAA.”
Indeed, both the Division I Committee on the Infractions and the NCAA enforcement staff praised the University of Tennessee for its excellent cooperation and said that other schools should follow our lead.
It’s impossible that the leadership of our institution would be used as an example of great leadership to July 2023 and then as a warning sign of poor institutional control six months later.