Doyel: “The NCAA Is Going To Hammer Tennessee Like A One-Inch Nail”

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Sound the alarm.  Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com has churned out yet another column blasting Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl and athletic director Mike Hamilton.  Officially, I think that’s his 100th column on the subject, which moves him just past Thayer Evans’ (with 99 or so stories on Auburn) for the title of “Mr. Vendetta.”

Vol fans won’t like what the always gruff Doyel has to say about the school’s decision to keep Pearl on staff and what that decision might result in:


“The NCAA is going to hammer Tennessee like a one-inch nail — one shot, boom! — and when it happens, Tennessee will have employees above Bruce Pearl to blame.”


According to Doyel, the NCAA set a precedent when it benched Oklahoma State receiver Dez Bryant for a season because he lied to its investigators.  The NCAA then reinforced that precedent when it handed former UConn assistant Beau Archibald a two-year “show cause” penalty for doing the same.  And remember Archibald lost his job and then got a two-year ban.  Pearl served an 8-game suspension and lost some cash, but he didn’t lose his job.  The NCAA knows, according to Doyel, “the world is watching to see what happens to Pearl for doing the same thing” (as Bryant and Archibald). 

We’ll pause here for Tennessee fans to scream, “But Pearl eventually came clean on his own!”  But who knows how much credit the NCAA will give him for that?  Obviously Doyel thinks very little.


“How have you not fired Bruce Pearl yet?  Most times the NCAA punishes a coach guilty of blatant unethical conduct, is it punishing an ex-coach — because the unethical SOB has already been fired.  By not firing Pearl, Tennessee is setting itself up to be treated like USC was treated after bringing in renegade Lane Kiffin.  Tennessee was in trouble with the NCAA anyway, yes.  But by keeping Pearl, it will be so much worse.”


Now, you can argue that Doyel might be wrong.  You can argue — as I have on dozens of occasions — that Doyel himself comes across as just an angry, pot-stirring SOB.

But you can’t argue with his logic.  By allowing Pearl to keep his job — when the last 20 people accused of “unethical conduct” lost theirs — UT appears to have gone all-in with its coach.  They would rather see their basketball program get burned to the ground and then rebuild with Pearl than suffer less significant damage to their program and turn it over to someone new.

The NCAA might not be too keen on the message Hamilton and the UT administration are sending.  That’s the gamble for Tennessee.  And in June we’ll find out whether or not UT bet their house on a sucker’s bet or not.