Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl was officially cited by the NCAA on Wednesday for unethical conduct for improper hosting of recruits at a 2008 barbecue at his home and subsequently misleading investigators about who attended the event.
The NCAA officially released a report of its 22-month investigation that details the notice of allegations against the Vols men’s basketball and football programs Tuesday. Tennessee posted the release Wednesday on its website.
Pearl was cited for impermissible contact with student-athletes during an unofficial recruiting visit, for not being ethical about the matter, for failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance, and for failing to monitor the activities of his assistant coaches.
The notice did not include potential punishments.
Tennessee has 90 days to respond to the allegations, which also included rules violations against the football program and former coach and current USC coach Lane Kiffin. The NCAA also reviewed Tennessee’s baseball program during its probe, but did not levy any charges against it.
Tennessee is scheduled to appear before the NCAA Committee on Infractions on June 10-11 in Indianapolis. The committee takes up to four months to issue a decision in some cases, as it did in the recently concluded case against Connecticut.
Within the NCAA’s report, Pearl is singled out as failing to conduct himself with high standards of honesty and sportsmanship normally, by initially providing false and misleading information to Tennessee and the NCAA enforcement staff and by attempting to influence others to furnish Tennessee and the NCAA “with false and misleading information concerning their involvement.”
[+] EnlargeDon McPeak/US Presswire
The NCAA cited Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl for failing to uphold standards of ethical conduct.The one new charge revealed in the notice of allegations was that Pearl and associate head coach Tony Jones were cited for a secondary violation of “bumping” 2012 recruit Jordan Adams (Lawrenceville, Ga.), on Sept. 14, 2010, during Adams’ junior year when the two visited Adams at Oak Hill Academy.
According to the report, Pearl and Jones had a two-to-three-minute conversation with Adams prior to the start of basketball practice. The violation with Adams came shortly after Pearl and Tennessee held a news conference announcing the self-imposed penalties. Pearl was allowed to recruit on the road for two-plus weeks before he was shut down for a year on Sept. 24.
The three assistant coaches — Jones, Jason Shay and Steve Forbes — were cited for failing to provide complete and relevant information in the investigation. They were not cited for unethical conduct, as Pearl was.
According to the notice of allegations, Pearl was interviewed on June 14 and provided false information about being photographed with current Ohio State freshman point%
via Tennessee Volunteers coach Bruce Pearl cited by NCAA for unethical conduct – ESPN.
