NCAA Looks Into Tennessee Athletics For Possible NIL Infractions In Latest Attempt To Show It Still Has Control | Trey Wallace

The NCAA has been investigating the University of Tennessee’s NIL practices over the last several months, looking to instill its power over colleges.

All of this comes after the school reached an agreement with the governing body this past summer to end the investigation into Jeremy Pruitt and his staff. Now, the NCAA has decided it wants to investigate schools for NIL malpractice, without clear guidelines of how to control the matter.

Pat Forde first reported on the matter.

Just like the investigations into Florida State and Florida, the NCAA has decided to try and clamp down on potential inducements and NIL practices. The problem with this is that there are wavering guidelines on how schools and collectives can actually go about using the flawed system.

According to multiple sources, Tennessee has not received a notice of allegations by the NCAA, as the organization has been looking into NIL deals on the Vols’ campus over the last several months and speaking with student athletes. The bigger question is where does this go from here.

It wasn't long ago that Tennessee made headlines for signing Nico Iamleava, with multiple outlets reporting on a major contract figure for the quarterback. But, this does not only pertain to football. The NCAA has been looking into multiple sports.

NCAA Is On Witch-Hunt To Right Their Wrongs, Now Tennessee

Most of what you are seeing right now in terms of the NCAA punishing schools like Florida State is a backlog of cases they felt deserved attention. The problem is, the NCAA is now trying to go back and find mistakes by collectives and athletes, knowing that the parameters setup when NIL was introduced were pretty much non-existent.

Now, your'e going to see the organization try to find out what they've missed over the last few years, if anything. In this new era of college football, the NCAA could show up on any campus and find something wrong, even the tiniest of things. So, when a school like Tennessee or Florida is investigated, it's easy for the NCAA to act as if they are doing something about the ongoing problem.

In the case of Tennessee, the one problem that they have is that they are still dealing with the fallout from the Jeremy Pruitt era.

The schools involved in these cases feel as if the goalposts are being moved on a monthly basis, and the NCAA looking into potential problems when NIL was first introduced feels like a 'gotcha' moment for those involved.

We will see where this investigation goes, as the NCAA continues to ramp up its enforcement of potential NIL violations. I just don't know how they're going to get the toothpaste back into the container.