Report: Jeremy Pruitt granted injunction against NCAA, preventing show cause enforcement

Former Tennessee Volunteers head coach Jeremy Pruitt earned a win in court on Monday. An Alabama judge has reportedly granted him an injunction against the NCAA preventing it from enforcing its show-cause order or interfering with his employment opportunities.

The NCAA previously instituted a six-year show-cause penalty on Pruitt. That penalty came in 2023 after an NCAA investigation into infractions that he was accused of committing while being the head coach at Tennessee. It would be scheduled to be in place until July 13, 2029.

Jeremy Pruitt and his staff at Tennessee were found to have provided about $60,000 of impermissible benefits and recruiting inducements. That came during his three seasons at Tennessee, from 2018 through 2020. Pruitt would also see his wins stripped in the 2019 and 2020 seasons. That amounted to 11 vacated wins.

Jeremy Pruitt initially filed for the injunction in October. It’s part of a $100 million lawsuit that he’s launched against the NCAA. He submitted the injunction in DeKalb County, Alabama.

Andrew Hairston, a DeKalb County judge, wrote in his decision that the benefits of the injunction for Pruitt outweigh the hardship that the injunction would impose on the NCAA. Now, that injunction is going to block the NCAA from enforcing its show-cause penalty.

A show-cause penalty is one of the most significant penalties that the NCAA levies on individuals, typically coaches. It requires schools to justify the hiring of coaches, or showing cause to hire them, when they’re under the order. While not a permanent ban, it makes it very difficult to land jobs, particularly at the highest level of college coaching. It was also on that basis that Pruitt’s attorneys argued for the injunction.

This comes after, earlier in the month, Pruitt’s agent signed an affidavit saying, “Multiple institutions and programs have expressed interest in Coach Pruitt’s services and have acknowledged his coaching abilities and qualifications. However, representatives and coaches with these same institutions have indicated that the Show Cause Order makes hiring him extremely problematic.” While it did not specify any teams, the implication is clear. The NCAA’s actions were making it difficult for him to potentially land jobs in the future within college coaching.

For the NCAA’s part, they argued that the injunction was unnecessary because Jacksonville State had been granted permission to hire Pruitt as an analyst. NCAA attorneys would also attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed, but Judge Hairston denied the request last week.