[July 22, 2011] Tennessee self-imposes 2 years of probation for NCAA violations Tweet Jul 22, 2011 (The Knoxville News-Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The University of Tennessee self-imposed two years of probation on its athletic department after it submitted its response to the NCAA's Notice of Allegations on May 20, according to documents obtained Friday by the News Sentinel through a public records request. Outside of a handful of recruiting restrictions placed on the current football staff and a minor restriction placed on the new men's basketball staff in 2011, the university believed that "the penalties imposed during the course of its investigation, coupled with its corrective measures, adequately address the violations that occurred," according to the university's response. "The University has taken what it believes are meaningful and appropriate steps to address the problems identified in this case," the response reads, "including declaring student-athletes ineligible, implementing enhancements to the compliance program, and self-imposing penalties upon the particular coaching staff members and sports programs that were designed to punish the head coach, deter similar conduct in the future, and offset any advantages that the programs may have gained." Along with the probation, UT has enacted the following self-imposed punishments: Men's basketball coach Cuonzo Martin and his staff are not permitted to provide occasional off-campus meals during the 2011-12 academic year. On Nov. 1, the first day of the November 2011 contact period, only 50 percent of coaches (10 to five) on Derek Dooley's football coaching staff can make recruiting telephone calls to prospective student athletes. During the Spring 2011 evaluation period, the football staff had its permissible recruiting days reduced from 168 to 162. UT and its attorneys from Bond, Schoeneck and King made and defended these additional punitive punishments at June's Committee on Infractions hearing in Indianapolis, where UT and its former coaches in football and men's basketball were summoned after being accused of committing 12 major violations. As granted by the NCAA, the committee has the power to levy further punishments, including a reduction of scholarships and a postseason ban. It's not set when the COI will announce its rulings, but the minimum processing time is no fewer than eight weeks from the hearing. "The university's Response to the Notice of Allegations document is our official answer to the NCAA. We have no further comment," said Karen Simsen, director of media and internal relations at UT. The newly unveiled self-sanctions are in addition to the litany of penalties it issued throughout the 21-month investigation and during the months between when UT received the Notice of Allegations in February to the June hearing. As noted in the response, all individuals associated with the violations, with the exception of football Director of Player Personnel Steve Rubio, are no longer employed by the university. That includes former athletic director Mike Hamilton, who resigned days before the June hearing, and former men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl and his three assistants, who all collectively misled NCAA investigators during June 2010 interviews. "Sadly, this became a case of a head coach and his assistants following a somewhat correctable secondary violation with a series of bad decisions," the response reads. "Those decisions put a proud and reputable program in substantial jeopardy and eventually led to the termination of employment of the four coaches, each of whom had a promising future at the University." The response lists a number of corrective measures to ensure that these violations, which warranted the university's first major infractions case since 1991, won't happen again. Included in those are a new, strict policy for telephone call violations and the requirement for all of the school's coaches to submit quarterly compliance statements to chancellor Jimmy Cheek. "That commitment is perhaps most visibly evidenced by the hiring of Derek Dooley as head football coach and Cuonzo Martin as head men's basketball coach," the response reads. "Both men have impeccable reputations for integrity and compliance with governing rules and regulations." More details later online and in Saturday's News Sentinel. Andrew Gribble may be reached at 865-342-6327. Follow him at http://twitter.com/Andrew_Gribble and http://blogs.knoxnews.com/gribble To see more of The Knoxville News-Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.knoxnews.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]