The University of Tennessee is fighting back against the NCAA and its ongoing investigation into alleged NIL violations in the recruitment of star quarterback Nico Iamaleava. However, a resolution is unlikely to come at any point in the near future as both sides continue a back-and-forth legal battle. Spyre Sports, Tennessee’s primary NIL collective, is as the center of the NCAA investigation.
Tom Mars, a prominent attorney representing Spyre Sports, released a statement on Tuesday night detailing the collective’s “mutually beneficial” relationship with Iamaleava, saying the agreement was “fully consistent with existing NCAA NIL ‘guidelines’ and had nothing to do with recruiting to the University of Tennessee or any other school.”
“I think the NCAA has tried to go back and retroactively police the NIL space,” Vols247’s Patrick Brown said on 247Sports’ YouTube channel. “It’s something that obviously they’d never had a clear-cut policy on it and that’s been one of the criticisms levied at the NCAA is that a lot of their NIL, I think they called it an ‘interim policy,’ was vague and left all parties involved unsure how to go about it.”
Shortly after the initial reports of the NCAA’s investigation into Tennessee for possible NIL violations on Monday, leadership at the university, including chancellor Donde Plowman and eventually athletic director Danny White fired back in defense with statements.
In addition, the Tennessee and Virginia attorney generals filed a lawsuit aimed at the NCAA for antitrust violations stemming from the probe into the alleged breaking of NIL laws. Tennessee alleges that the NCAA has violated antitrust laws by denying student-athletes the opportunity to profit off of their name, image or likeness (NIL).
The NCAA issued a response to the lawsuit in a written statement, saying in part, “This legal action would exacerbate what our members themselves have frequently described as a ‘wild west’ atmosphere, further tilting competitive imbalance among schools in neighboring states, and diminishing protections for student-athletes from potential exploitation.”
CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd reported Friday that a preliminary injunction hearing is set for Feb. 13. Tennessee and the NCAA must file responses by this weekend and a judge can issue or deny a temporary restraining order before the preliminary injunction.
“I’m not sure we’re going to get any sort of resolution on this for a while,” Brown said on 247Sports. “These things tend to not have easy endings. They’re typically messy and they’re typically are drawn out over a long period of time. As much back and forth, and as much as there’s been something almost every few hours over the past couple days, I don’t know how long that will continue. I think we’re all wondering, as you mentioned, will Tennessee get a notice of allegations, a formal inquiry at that point. That’s obviously the next step from the NCAA’s standpoint. What happens with this lawsuit? That lawsuit is requested that a temporary restraining order is put in by the court to keep the NCAA from enforcing its own NIL rules in the recruiting space as early as next week.”
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Tennessee football is scheduled to open the 2024 season against Chattanooga on Aug. 31 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.
Brad Crawford contributed to this report.
