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Former Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA seeking $100 million and claims it conspired with the university to make him a “sacrificial lamb.”

Pruitt was fired for cause by Tennessee in January 2021 and didn’t receive any of his $12.6 million buyout after an internal investigation revealed what chancellor Donde Plowman said were serious violations of NCAA rules. On July 14, 2023, the NCAA sentenced Pruitt to a six-year show cause penalty, including a yearlong suspension from coaching in games and recruiting off campus in his first year back should he return to coaching in college.

Pruitt has not coached in college football since. At least one other SEC school has shown interest in hiring Pruitt, sources told ESPN, but was dissuaded from doing so by superiors at its university and/or the conference office. Pruitt is currently helping coach his alma mater, Plainview High School in Alabama, with his father, Dale Pruitt.

In the lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday in DeKalb County, Alabama, Pruitt alleges that Tennessee was paying players before he was hired in December 2017, and that when he notified then-athletic director Phillip Fulmer of the illegal payments, Fulmer said “he would handle it” through the university’s compliance department.

Tennessee issued a response Thursday through a spokesperson that read: “The university is confident in the actions taken in the Pruitt case. We will continue to prioritize our student-athletes and winning with integrity.”

Pruitt could not be reached for comment.

This isn’t the first time Pruitt has turned to the legal system. In 2021, about nine months after his firing, an attorney representing Pruitt at the time, Michael Lyons, threatened a lawsuit against Tennessee if the university failed to reach a settlement with Pruitt by Oct. 29 of that year. Lyons wrote a letter to UT’s general counsel claiming that Pruitt’s lawsuit had the potential to “cripple UT’s athletic programs for years.”

That deadline passed, and nothing ever came of the threatened lawsuit against Tennessee.

But this time, Pruitt has followed through against the NCAA and is adamant that Tennessee was involved. He claims in the lawsuit that he suffered damages, including lost wages and other compensation, future lost wages and other compensation, damage to his reputation, emotional distress and mental anguish and other compensatory damages, all related to NCAA actions. He is claiming that the damages will exceed $100 million but would also allow a jury to determine an amount.

Pruitt’s firing at Tennessee came shortly before the advent of name, image and likeness (NIL), which made payments to players legal. His attorneys in the suit argue that the NCAA punished Pruitt for something that is no longer illegal.

The complaint also notes that shortly after Tennessee’s hearing before the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions in April 2023, that the state of Tennessee and its attorney general sued the NCAA and successfully obtained a legal ruling that prohibited the NCAA from using its rules to prohibit NIL or inducements of any kind from going to players.

Tennessee was prepared to go on the offensive after the NCAA began investigating the recruitment of star quarterback Nico Iamaleava and whether his reported $8 million NIL deal, crafted by collective Spyre Sports, rose to the level of an illegal recruiting inducement. Sources told ESPN that Tennessee officials had already viewed a preview of the NCAA’s notice of allegations and that the NCAA was poised to make Iamaleava ineligible and require Tennessee to disassociate with Spyre.

A legal battle ensued and was finalized earlier this month when the NCAA dropped its ban on NIL recruiting, which the Tennessee and Virginia state attorney generals had been fighting for when they first sued the NCAA back in 2023.

“Jeremy Pruitt may be the last coach in America to be punished for impermissible player benefits,” his attorneys stated in his complaint.

Per that complaint, Pruitt alleges that Plowman, the university chancellor, told him, “Jeremy, we know you haven’t done anything wrong” while meeting with him to serve notice of intent to terminate his position as head coach of the UT football program, which triggered a multiyear investigatory process leading to what Pruitt’s legal team called a “farcical hearing.”

The lawsuit alleges that the university had a vested interest in the predetermined outcome of the investigation and that the NCAA effectively established a “tribunal” that would accomplish three things: Pruitt taking the blame, the University of Tennessee being commended and the university having cover to avoid paying Pruitt’s buyout.

“The investigation was intentionally limited to avoid examining historical misconduct at UT, which long preceded Jeremy and was hidden from him,” according to the lawsuit, which alleges negligence, wantonness, tortious interference with existing and prospective business relationships, conspiracy and bad faith on the part of the NCAA and eight unnamed defendants, identified as “fictitious defendants One through Eight.”

Tennessee was placed on five years of probation in 2023 by the NCAA. The football program was docked 28 scholarships but avoided a bowl ban. The university was hit with a fine totaling close to $9 million, which the NCAA said was the equivalent to the financial impact the school would have faced had it missed the postseason in 2023 and 2024. It’s believed to be the largest fine ever levied in an NCAA infractions case.

The NCAA said Tennessee’s football program committed 18 Level 1 violations (the most severe in the NCAA rules structure) and more than 200 individual violations during Pruitt’s three seasons as coach. Most of the violations, according to the NCAA’s findings, involved recruiting rules violations and payments to prospects, current athletes and their families, with many of those violations coming during unofficial visits.

The NCAA’s report said $60,000 in impermissible benefits was part of the 200-plus violations and that both Pruitt and his wife, Casey, made cash payments to players and their families.

The NCAA required Tennessee to vacate all wins and individual records in any game in which 16 sanctioned players participated during Pruitt’s three seasons.

Tennessee officials and others, including SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Pruitt, were in Cincinnati for two days in April 2023 as the NCAA Committee on Infractions heard Tennessee’s case, which was triggered when Plowman said in November 2020 that her office had received a credible tip on a potential recruiting violation within the football program. A week later, Tennessee hired the law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King to investigate any wrongdoing. That investigation lasted nearly a year and cost the university more than $1.5 million in legal fees.

In Pruitt’s threatened lawsuit against Tennessee back in 2021, his attorney wrote in a letter to UT’s general counsel: “On behalf of my client, I can tell you that he’s not happy that this is the only choice they’ve left him with, but he’s not going to walk away without getting his day in court.”

Tennessee’s general counsel, Ryan Stinnett, responded by saying the university had no intention of reaching a settlement with Pruitt and was prepared to defend its actions.

Lyons’ letter warned that the lawsuit would reveal violations within Tennessee’s athletic program in previous years involving different coaches and administrators and different sports. He specifically mentioned Fulmer, Plowman and current basketball coach Rick Barnes.

Barnes, in particular, was upset that his name and his basketball program had been dragged into the fray.

Fulmer, who was a Hall of Fame football coach at Tennessee before taking on athletic director duties, told ESPN: “The days I interviewed each candidate for the head football coaching position at the University of Tennessee, including Jeremy Pruitt, I emphasized that you did not have to cheat to win at the University of Tennessee and that cheating would not be tolerated. Jeremy has no one to blame but himself for his firing from UT. He had a great opportunity at a great university, and he simply screwed it up.”

Pruitt was 16-19 in three seasons at Tennessee and 10-16 against SEC opponents.

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Rose Bowl agrees to earlier kick for CFP quarters

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Rose Bowl agrees to earlier kick for CFP quarters

LAS COLINAS, Texas — The Rose Bowl Game will start an hour earlier than its traditional window and kick off at 4 p.m. ET as part of a New Year’s Day tripleheader of College Football Playoff quarterfinals on ESPN, the CFP and ESPN announced on Tuesday.

The rest of the New Year’s Day quarterfinals on ESPN include the Capital One Orange Bowl (noon ET) and the Allstate Sugar Bowl (8 p.m.), which will also start earlier than usual.

“The Pasadena Tournament of Roses is confident that the one-hour time shift to the traditional kickoff time of the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential will help to improve the overall timing for all playoff games on January 1,” said David Eads, Chief Executive Office of the Tournament of Roses. “A mid-afternoon game has always been important to the tradition of The Grandaddy of Them All, but this small timing adjustment will not impact the Rose Bowl Game experience for our participants or attendees.

“Over the past five years, the Rose Bowl Game has run long on several occasions, resulting in a delayed start for the following bowl game,” Eads said, “and ultimately it was important for us to be good partners with ESPN and the College Football Playoff and remain flexible for the betterment of college football and its postseason.”

The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, a CFP quarterfinal this year, will be played at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN) on New Year’s Eve. The Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, a CFP semifinal, will be at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN) on Thursday, Jan. 8, and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will host the other CFP semifinal at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN) on Jan. 9.

ESPN is in the second year of its current expanded package, which also includes all four games of the CFP first round and a sublicense of two games to TNT Sports/WBD. The network, which has been the sole rights holder of the playoff since its inception in 2015, will present each of the four playoff quarterfinals, the two playoff semifinals and the 2026 CFP National Championship at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN) on Jan. 19, at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

The CFP national championship will return to Miami for the first time since 2021, marking the second straight season the game will return to a city for a second time. Atlanta hosted the title games in 2018 and 2025.

Last season’s quarterfinals had multiyear viewership highs with the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (17.3 million viewers) becoming the most-watched pre-3 p.m. ET bowl game ever. The CFP semifinals produced the most-watched Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (20.6 million viewers) and the second-most-watched Capital One Orange Bowl in nearly 20 years (17.8 million viewers).

The 2025 CFP national championship between Ohio State and Notre Dame had 22.1 million viewers, the most-watched non-NFL sporting event over the past year. The showdown peaked with 26.1 million viewers.

Further scheduling details, including playoff first round dates, times and networks, as well as full MegaCast information, will be announced later this year.

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Mike Patrick, longtime ESPN broadcaster, dies

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Mike Patrick, longtime ESPN broadcaster, dies

Mike Patrick, who spent 36 years as a play-by-play commentator for ESPN and was the network’s NFL voice for “Sunday Night Football” for 18 seasons, has died at the age of 80.

Patrick died of natural causes on Sunday in Fairfax, Virginia. Patrick’s doctor and the City of Clarksburg, West Virginia, where Patrick originally was from, confirmed the death Tuesday.

Patrick began his play-by-play role with ESPN in 1982. He called his last event — the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Dec. 30, 2017.

Patrick was the voice of ESPN’s “Sunday Night Football” from 1987 to 2005 and played a major role in broadcasts of college football and basketball. He called more than 30 ACC basketball championships and was the voice of ESPN’s Women’s Final Four coverage from 1996 to 2009.

He called ESPN’s first-ever regular-season NFL game in 1987, and he was joined in the booth by former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann and later Paul Maguire.

For college football, Patrick was the play-by-play voice for ESPN’s “Thursday Night Football” and also “Saturday Night Football.” He also served as play-by-play announcer for ESPN’s coverage of the College World Series.

“It’s wonderful to reflect on how I’ve done exactly what I wanted to do with my life,” Patrick said when he left ESPN in 2018. “At the same time, I’ve had the great pleasure of working with some of the very best people I’ve ever known, both on the air and behind the scenes.”

Patrick began his broadcasting career in 1966 at WVSC-Radio in Somerset, Pennsylvania. In 1970, he was named sports director at WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Florida, where he provided play-by-play for Jacksonville Sharks’ World Football League telecasts (1973-74). He also called Jacksonville University basketball games on both radio and television and is a member of their Hall of Fame.

In 1975, Patrick moved to WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., as sports reporter and weekend anchor. In addition to those duties, Patrick called play-by-play for Maryland football and basketball (1975-78) and NFL preseason games for Washington from 1975 to 1982.

Patrick graduated from George Washington University where he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

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NASCAR’s Legge: Fans making death threats

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NASCAR's Legge: Fans making death threats

NASCAR driver Katherine Legge said she has been receiving “hate mail” and “death threats” from auto racing fans after she was involved in a crash that collected veteran driver Kasey Kahne during the Xfinity Series race last weekend at Rockingham.

Legge, who has started four Indy 500s but is a relative novice in stock cars, added during Tuesday’s episode of her “Throttle Therapy” podcast that “the inappropriate social media comments I’ve received aren’t just disturbing, they are unacceptable.”

“Let me be very clear,” the British driver said, “I’m here to race and I’m here to compete, and I won’t tolerate any of these threats to my safety or to my dignity, whether that’s on track or off of it.”

Legge became the first woman in seven years to start a Cup Series race earlier this year at Phoenix. But her debut in NASCAR’s top series ended when Legge, who had already spun once, was involved in another spin and collected Daniel Suarez.

Her next start was the lower-level Xfinity race in Rockingham, North Carolina, last Saturday. Legge was good enough to make the field on speed but was bumped off the starting grid because of ownership points. Ultimately, she was able to take J.J. Yeley’s seat in the No. 53 car for Joey Gase Motorsports, which had to scramble at the last minute to prepare the car for her.

Legge was well off the pace as the leaders were lapping her, and when she entered Turn 1, William Sawalich got into the back of her car. That sent Legge spinning, and Kahne had nowhere to go, running into her along the bottom of the track.

“I gave [Sawalich] a lane and the reason the closing pace looks so high isn’t because I braked midcorner. I didn’t. I stayed on my line, stayed doing my speed, which obviously isn’t the speed of the leaders because they’re passing me,” Legge said. “He charged in a bit too hard, which is the speed difference you see. He understeered up a lane and into me, which spun me around.”

The 44-year-old Legge has experience in a variety of cars across numerous series. She made seven IndyCar starts for Dale Coyne Racing last year, and she has raced for several teams over more than a decade in the IMSA SportsCar series.

She has dabbled in NASCAR in the past, too, starting four Xfinity races during the 2018 season and another two years ago.

“I have earned my seat on that race track,” Legge said. “I’ve worked just as hard as any of the other drivers out there, and I’ve been racing professionally for the last 20 years. I’m 100 percent sure that … the teams that employed me — without me bringing any sponsorship money for the majority of those 20 years — did not do so as a DEI hire, or a gimmick, or anything else. It’s because I can drive a race car.”

Legge believes the vitriol she has received on social media is indicative of a larger issue with women in motorsports.

“Luckily,” she said, “I have been in tougher battles than you guys in the comment sections.”

Legge has received plenty of support from those in the racing community. IndyCar driver Marco Andretti clapped back at one critic on social media who called Legge “unproven” in response to a post about her history at the Indy 500.

“It’s wild to me how many grown men talk badly about badass girls like this,” Andretti wrote on X. “Does it make them feel more manly from the couch or something?”

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