Why Tennessee football will fight failure to monitor violation in NCAA hearing

The NCAA alleges that all but one of the 18 highest-level violations in Tennessee football’s NCAA case were committed by former coach Jeremy Pruitt and his wife, staff members and a booster.

But the one exception is important.

The university faces an allegation of failure to monitor the football program in an NCAA hearing, which begins Wednesday in Cincinnati. It’s the 18th Level 1 violation listed by the NCAA, while the other 17 are levied against individuals.

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Failure to monitor can be a misunderstood term. Here’s what the violation means and why it matters to UT.

It’s different than lack of institutional control

Failure to monitor is often confused with lack of institutional control, which is a more severe violation.

A university is guilty of lack of institutional control when it fails to display adequate compliance measures, appropriate education on NCAA rules, sufficient monitoring and swift action when violations are discovered.

Failure to monitor is considered less severe.

Violations resulting from a failure to monitor are usually limited in scope and do not involve the widespread issues found in cases that allege a lack of institutional control.

Why Tennessee was hit with a Level 1 violation

The good news for UT is that it avoided an allegation of lack of institutional control. That's always a Level 1 violation, the most serious in the NCAA's three-tier system.

Cooperating fully and dedicating immense resources to aid the NCAA investigation likely helped UT's position, and that matters.

In a 2017 decision, the NCAA found Ole Miss football lacked institutional control during Hugh Freeze’s tenure and imposed stiff penalties, including a two-year postseason ban. But the Vols eluded that more severe charge.

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The bad news for UT is that the failure to monitor violation is categorized as Level 1, which should result in stiffer penalties than a Level 2 violation.

Failure to monitor is usually a Level 2 violation unless, according to the NCAA handbook, the “failure is substantial and egregious.” The NCAA thought that was evident in UT's case.

In its notice of allegation, the NCAA enforcement staff determined UT's violation was a “severe breach of conduct (Level 1) because the failure to monitor was substantial and seriously undermined or threatened the integrity of the NCAA collegiate model.”

Why NCAA might uphold ruling against Tennessee

The breadth of this case makes it challenging for UT to get the Level 1 violation dismissed or downgraded.

The NCAA reported that the "institution's monitoring processes failed to deter or detect more than 200 separate violations, involving more than a dozen football staff members, related to impermissible unofficial visit expenses."

So is the NCAA hammering UT with a Level 1 violation? Or is it letting UT off easy by not alleging a lack of institutional control? That depends on the perspective.

One interpretation is that the NCAA saw its initial ruling as a compromise between harsh and lenient allegations.

The NCAA downgraded the allegation from lack of institutional control to failure to monitor in appreciation for UT's above-and-beyond cooperation.

UT self-reported infractions, conducted an internal investigation led by high-powered lawyers, has spent about $1.5 million in legal fees over the course of the investigation, dug up new violations that NCAA investigators had not discovered and fired Pruitt for cause, along with additional coaches and recruiting staff members alleged to have committed violations.

“These actions by (Tennessee) led to the fully-formed record that would not be possible without the significant actions taken by the institution,” the NCAA said in its notice of allegations to UT.

However, the NCAA upheld a Level 1 status in its allegation of failure to monitor because it says UT must be held accountable in such a serious case. After all, if 17 Level 1 violations occurred under UT’s watch, it must accept some degree of responsibility.

Tennessee says it did all it could

UT disagrees. It argued that Pruitt, his wife and staff knew what they were doing was wrong and intentionally kept the university in the dark.

In its response to the NCAA, UT provided examples of the football staff secretly hosting prospects on impermissible recruiting visits only days before and after the compliance staff held an educational session about those same rules that coaches were allegedly breaking.

"Despite the University’s monitoring efforts, athletics administrators and athletics compliance staff members were repeatedly deceived by the football program," UT said in its response to the NCAA. "The University respectfully submits that it is unrealistic to expect an institution to prevent, or immediately detect, the intentional and concealed misconduct that occurred in this case.”

Presumably, Pruitt will try to defend himself and deny knowledge of the violations. But if that doesn’t work, he could claim that UT knew of wrongdoing.

Former UT assistant coaches Brian Niedermeyer and Shelton Felton, former director of player personnel Drew Hughes and former student assistant Michael Magness accepted show-cause penalties.

They have not said whether they will claim UT employees outside the football program had knowledge of wrongdoing. And NCAA confidentiality rules do not permit parties involved in a case to comment until a decision is reached.

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. Twitter @AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why Tennessee football will fight failure to monitor violation in NCAA hearing