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The NCAA is investigating the University of Tennessee’s football program for recruiting violations involving a group of outside donors, according to documents and people familiar with the matter, adding to efforts to rein in the growing influence of a flood of money on college sports. Gives indication of.
The investigation focuses on Tennessee’s high-profile donor collective, a group of alumni and wealthy boosters who support the team by giving payments and other benefits to players. The investigation is looking, among other things, at the group’s role in flying a high-profile recruit to campus on a private jet while the football team was courting him, a person familiar with the matter said.
Paying a booster group to recruit Niko Imaleeva, now Tennessee’s starting quarterback, would be a violation of NCAA rules. The investigation comes after the NCAA previously punished Tennessee for recruiting violations and signals the organization’s growing concern about groups of donors pumping huge sums of money into the nominally amateur world of college sports.
The case could have a profound impact on the direction of high-profile programs across the country, particularly in football, where outside money collectively raised and distributed to players has reshaped the economics of the game. The investigation into Tennessee’s athletic program was first reported by Sports Illustrated.
Tennessee officials are concerned that the investigation could result in a devastating blow to its football program, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The program is already on probation for recruiting violations, and school officials are concerned about the possibility of the NCAA taking drastic action, such as banning the team from postseason play and declaring players ineligible.
Faced with that possibility, the school has hired multiple law firms and is considering multiple legal options to avoid any consequences.
At the center of the investigation are donor groups, which are organized groups of alumni and other boosters who donate money to support teams. They have become a major force in college sports over the past several years by taking advantage of a new system established to allow players to benefit from endorsements, known as the name-image-likeness deal, or NIL.
Groups are increasingly arranging for athletes to be paid sums that are comparable to what professionals earn. Tennessee quarterback Mr. Imaliaeva has a deal with the school group that could be worth $8 million. After playing a limited role most of the previous season, he became the team’s starter in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day, leading Tennessee to a 35–0 victory over Iowa.
The exact violations the NCAA is pursuing in the Tennessee case and the penalties it is seeking remain unclear. As of Tuesday, Tennessee had not yet received a formal notice of charges, which would outline the findings of the investigation.
On Monday, as NCAA enforcement officials met with Tennessee officials to discuss the investigation, university Chancellor Donde Plowman wrote a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker calling the allegations “factually untrue and procedurally flawed.” Told.
In the letter obtained through a public records request, Ms. Plowman criticized the NCAA for “two and a half years of vague and contradictory” memos on how schools should deal with NIL issues and donor groups. He said the NCAA “has created extraordinary chaos that student-athletes and institutions are struggling to deal with.”
At many Division I schools, collectives, although not technically affiliated with the universities they support, have become closely integrated into the recruiting of high school students. And in an era when athletes can easily move from one school to another in search of better opportunities, they have become entrenched in offering lucrative deals to retain star players.
The New York Times has counted at least 140 groups working at schools with big-time football and basketball programs. Collectives now account for approximately 80 percent of all name, image and likeness payments made to athletes, far more than all the commercial brands for which the system was designed.
The NCAA has set rules for these groups, including prohibiting them from explicitly offering cash to lure recruits, saying any deal can only be made if an athlete enrolls at a school. Take.
But the NCAA has also been hit by court losses that have diminished its power to regulate collegiate play. Until recently, there was little evidence that it was policing them at all.
As a result, top-tier college sports programs, especially in football and basketball, have become almost a free market, with coaches openly encouraging alumni and other supporters to keep them competitive by donating money.
Some schools have become increasingly adventurous, appointing their state lawmakers to fight against the NCAA when it tries to make rules.
The latest example came in December, when attorneys general in seven states, including Tennessee, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA, calling any eligibility restrictions on transfers a restraint on trade. The lawsuit was joined by the Justice Department this month.
Amid a barrage of litigation, the NCAA’s Mr. Baker has asked Congress for antitrust immunity. He testified on Capitol Hill that these lawsuits – along with recently enacted state laws that target NIL regulations – have made it nearly impossible for the organization to govern its members.
In investigating Tennessee’s football program, the NCAA is investigating a team backed by one of the richest and most vocal groups in the country, a booster-funded group called the Volunteer Club. That group is closely linked to a marketing agency called Spire Sports Group: the two entities have the same top executives and the same address in Knoxville, Tenn.
Last year, the website On3.com, which tracks collectives, called the Volunteer Club “the leading collective in the country” after the group said it had raised $13.5 million for Tennessee athletes.
The biggest prize was Mr. Imalewa, a 6-foot-6-inch quarterback from Long Beach, California, who was the nationally ranked highly recruited player in his high school class.
“The nice word that’s been used is ‘collective.'” But make no mistake: This is a war chest, “Hunter Baddour, a top executive at both Spire Sports and the Volunteer Club, said on a podcast in 2022.” “We’re working to raise money, build a net-zero war chest, where Tennessee is going to be as competitive as anybody else in the country.”
As its collective developed, Tennessee improved on the field. After a long disappointing run, the Volunteers posted a 9-4 record last year and the team finished the season ranked in the top 20.
Mr. Baddour also organized a lobbying group for this new industry, the Collective Association, which has reportedly asked the NCAA to share some of its extensive television revenues with the Collective.
Mr. Baddour and James Clawson, other top officials at the Volunteer Club, did not respond to requests for comment. Late Tuesday night, Spire Sports posted a statement on Twitter saying the group had followed NCAA guidelines, and that its contract with Mr. Imalewa does not require him to play for Tennessee.
The void rules, which took effect in 2021, allowed players to pay for advertising, but continued to prohibit students from paying to play. But groups that emerged in many schools effectively found a way around that obstacle.
They sign huge contracts for little work to keep athletes happy and playing at their chosen school — sometimes as little as one social-media post a month. Some groups, although not volunteer clubs, were set up as non-profit entities that allowed donors to claim tax deductions for their contributions.
Last July, after finding “repeated and serious violations” of the ban on coaches using cash to recruit players, the NCAA fined Tennessee $8 million and placed its athletic program on probation for five years. Kept on. Those violations occurred before the zero system. Instead, coaches paid football players the old-fashioned way, in cash.
Since the collusion came to light in late 2021, the NCAA has announced two cases where it has penalized schools because of name, image and likeness payments from boosters. Last year, the University of Miami was lightly fined after a booster posted photos of himself luring potential transfer students to the women’s basketball team.
However, this month, the NCAA levied more severe penalties against Florida State — including a fine and two years of probation — after a football coach there escorted a potential transfer student to a meeting with a collegiate representative. The NCAA said the representative offered the player $15,000 per month to sign with Florida State. The player declined the offer and remained at his original school.
The NCAA is also investigating the University of Florida over the recruitment of quarterback Jaden Rashada, who signed a $13.85 million deal over four years with the now-defunct Gator Collective. Mr. Rashada, who originally committed to the University of Miami, ultimately landed at Arizona State.
