Tennessee Football: Jeremy Pruitt committed the dumbest NCAA violation

It was announced today that Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt had committed a minor NCAA violation earlier this year for congratulating his former high school.

These minor NCAA violations are some of the dumbest “violations” I have ever seen. The most violation Jeremy Pruitt committed is one that doesn’t really make sense in the context it was given in.

Pruitt congratulated his alma mater after they won the basketball state championship, but in that tweet, he mentioned the name of the school and the coach. According to NCAA rules, that is endorsing the school and coach, which is not permitted.

The tweet stated, “Congratulations Robi Coker and Plainview High School on back to back State Championships! #2muchblue #PLV.” The tweet was deleted 37 minutes later and replaced by a more appropriate tweet.

“Congrats to my alma mater on winning back to back state championships! #2muchblue #PLV,” the new tweet said. Pruitt isn’t too involved with social media, so seeing a mistake like this isn’t that big of a deal.

His punishment should be nothing more than a slap on the wrist. He Pruitt was congratulating his former school on winning the basketball state championship it’s not like they won the football state championship and he openly congratulated guys he’s recruiting.

But that violation will be the least of his worries. He committed a total of three minor violations in the first half of 2019.

"“There are thousands of NCAA rules and interpretations of those rules, so it is expected that inadvertent, minor violations may occur on occasion,” associate athletics director for compliance Andrew Donovan told the AP. “We have a strong culture of compliance at the University of Tennessee. Our coaches and staff are fully committed to doing things the right way. They view compliance as a shared responsibility and hold themselves and each other accountable.”"

I understand the NCAA is trying to keep the integrity in the game, recruiting and all facets of college athletics but I think it’s time to ease up on the rules a little. Especially rules like these that in no way affect the coach, university or high school.

The high school football players most likely already know Pruitt went to that high school so yeah it’s cool seeing him recognize the accomplishment, but I don’t think that’s going to sway a recruit’s decision.

With social media growing so quickly, I think this rule will be held to a higher standard, which is the opposite way I think it should go. As long as the coach isn’t openly endorsing a school, coach or player in the sport, they coach I don’t see it as a problem.