Former Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt received a win in court on Monday. An Alabama judge granted Pruitt’s request for a preliminary injunction against the NCAA, Alabama 247’s Mike Rodak reported.
The injunction prevents the NCAA from enforcing the show-cause penalty it levied against Pruitt back in 2023. The show-cause, which makes NCAA institutions seek permission to hire Pruitt and often comes with limitations, was for six years.
The injunction is part of a $100 million lawsuit from Pruitt against the NCAA, alleging that the collegiate sports governing body colluded with the University of Tennessee to make Pruitt the scapegoat of the investigation into illegal recruiting at Tennessee.
Pruitt’s win in court comes less than two months after the NCAA approved a deal for Pruitt to become an analyst at Jacksonville State. But the NCAA’s approval limited Pruitt to coaching positions where he didn’t have to recruit.
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At least in the short term, the NCAA’s show-cause penalty is completely ineffective and Pruitt can coach in any position where a school is willing to hire him.
The NCAA hit Pruitt with the harsh penalty after an investigation revealed Pruitt giving players impermissible benefits and payments during his three-year tenure as Tennessee’s head coach. The Vols fired Pruitt with cause after beginning an internal investigation into the recruiting allegations during a disastrous 2020 season.
Tennessee went 16-19 in Pruitt’s three years as head coach, posting a 5-7 record in 2018, a 8-5 record in 2019 and a 3-7 record in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season.
Following his three years at Tennessee, Pruitt spent the 2021 season as a senior defensive analyst with the New York Giants, but was not retained. In 2023, Plainview High School in Georgia hired Pruitt as a physical education teacher.. There, he was the school’s junior high boys’ basketball coach.
