Tennessee broke tampering rules for transfers, but it had good excuses for NCAA

baseball, men’s basketball and women’s soccer coaches committed minor NCAA violations by contacting players enrolled at other universities.

The infractions were self-reported. And the NCAA determined the coaches had reasonable excuses for breaking the rules.

Players said they were in the transfer portal before they were. And UT coaches talked to players at other universities whom they had known for years but didn’t try to lure them to the Vols.

Those circumstances lightened the penalties for UT.

And other minor violations were committed when Lady Vols basketball made a social media snafu and a few golfers exceeded NCAA restrictions on practice time.

UT athletics reported five Level III NCAA violations in the first half of 2024, according to a document obtained by Knox News through a public records request. Some of the violations occurred prior to 2024, but they were finalized this year.

Level III infractions are minor breaches of conduct. They are common and routinely reported by athletic departments at every school. They almost always result in low-level penalties, as was the case with these instances by UT.

Some of these UT violations provide a glimpse into the convoluted nature of the NCAA rulebook. Here’s a breakdown.

Contact with baseball player was personal, not recruiting

UT baseball committed a minor violation two years before winning the national championship, but it wasn't finalized until January.

In 2022, a volunteer assistant coach exchanged impermissible phone calls and text messages with a player at another university. The document did not identify the coach or player.

That’s tampering under NCAA rules. But a joint investigation by UT and the NCAA determined the communication was personal and not recruiting in nature. The staff member never asked the player to transfer to UT, and the player never entered the transfer portal.

The assistant and player were from the same area and had known each other for years, and UT had not recruited the player out of high school. The player told investigators that the communication was “about my development (as a pitcher)” and that the staff member “was just giving me like tips” about pitching.

Other text messages were about personal topics unrelated to baseball.

The SEC prohibited the staff member from engaging in recruiting activities for 30 days. He also received NCAA rules training, and UT self-imposed a one-week recruiting ban for the entire baseball staff during the 2023-24 academic year.

Basketball player wasn’t in the portal despite tweet

In 2022, assistant basketball coach Rod Clark contacted a player at another school and the player's father before the player entered the transfer portal. But the violation didn’t appear to be intentional.

The player, who was not identified in the UT document, had posted on social media he was transferring, and there were multiple national media outlets reporting the same. But his name had not yet appeared in the portal database.

And there were other mitigating factors.

Clark had a longstanding relationship with the player’s family of more than 10 years, which designated him as a family member by the NCAA’s definition. And their respective families had known each other for at least two additional generations.

Plus, all parties said that Clark never recruited the player to UT. Instead, he encouraged the player and reassured him that he would have good schools from which to choose.

The next morning, Clark discovered the player had not been in the portal at the time of their phone call, so he self-reported the violation.

Clark served a two-game suspension to start the 2023-24 season, which Knox News reported at the time. And UT could not recruit the player involved.

Clark was prohibited from recruiting activities for 30 days, beginning in September 2023. The basketball program lost seven days of in-person recruiting. And the staff underwent NCAA rules training.

Soccer player emailed UT before she was in portal

In November, a women’s soccer player emailed the UT coaching staff about her interest in playing for the Lady Vols.

UT coaches replied by sending two emails and two text messages to the player. And coach Joe Kirt planned a phone call with the player later that day while also preparing his team to play in the NCAA tournament the following day.

But Kirt couldn’t find the player in the portal database. The player then told Kirt that her school’s compliance office had told her that she was permitted to contact schools because her coach had left the program.

However, she was supposed to wait until her name appeared in the portal database. Kirt explained the rule to the player and then self-reported the violation.

Kirt and his staff underwent rules training, and UT prohibited them from recruiting the player who contacted them prematurely. The NCAA also banned the staff from recruiting communication for one week.

Lady Vols guilty of premature tweet

Coaches and staff members are allowed to comment publicly about a player after they have signed a national letter of intent.

But Catherine Greene, UT’s director of women’s basketball operations, jumped the gun. When a recruit posted her commitment to the Lady Vols on X, formerly known as Twitter, Greene added a comment: “Welcome to the family!”

But the recruit did not sign with UT until the following day. When Greene was reminded about the rule, she immediately deleted the social media post and reported the violation.

Greene is not identified in the UT document. But she has served as director of operations under former coach Kellie Harper and current coach Kim Caldwell. This was the first violation in her 12-year career in women’s basketball.

Greene was prohibited from contact with any recruits for one week. The entire staff underwent rules training, and it was prohibited from sending recruiting materials to any recruits for one week.

Golfers practiced a little too long

Under NCAA rules, athletes cannot participate in more than 20 hours of mandatory athletic activities per week. That includes practices, weightlifting, conditioning, position meetings or any athletic activity supervised by a coach.

During one week, three UT women’s golfers exceeded that limit by one hour.

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Coach Diana Cantu was traveling with some golfers competing at an event while other members of the team remained in Knoxville.

Cantu did not communicate the time restrictions for the remaining practices that weekend. But while reviewing the practice logs, she discovered that three golfers stretched their practice time by one hour.

Cantu self-reported the violation. And she immediately reduced the entire team’s mandatory activity time from 20 hours to 18 for the following week. The SEC and NCAA accepted that self-imposed penalty.

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Emailadam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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