It sounds like one SEC team is facing a major investigation for possible recruiting violations stemming from their use of an NIL collective.
According to a report from Michael S. Schmidt, David A. Fahrenthold and Billy Witz of the New York Times, the University of Tennessee is currently under investigation for recruiting violations.
“The investigation is focused on Tennessee’s high-profile donor collective, a group of alumni and wealthy boosters who support the team by channeling payments and other benefits to players. The inquiry is looking at, among other things, the group’s role in flying a high-profile recruit to campus on a private jet while the football team was wooing him, one person familiar with the case said,” the New York Times reported.
“Having the booster group pay for the trip by the recruit, Nico Iamaleava, now Tennessee’s starting quarterback, would be a violation of N.C.A.A. rules. The inquiry comes after the N.C.A.A. penalized Tennessee for earlier recruiting violations and signals the organization’s growing concern about the huge sums being injected into the nominally amateur world of college sports by donor collectives.”
College football insider Pat Forde characterized these potential violations as “major” in nature, meaning this could be a very serious situation for Tennessee.
