I'm familiar with that idea and it's correct. The "show cause" penalty means a school has to show the NCAA why a coach is worthy of being hired in spite of his past violations.

But that's only semantics. The NCAA can hand out anything from a 3-game to a million-year suspension to Pearl. In other words, they can make the suspension so long that Tennessee would be forced to fire Pearl. At that point, they'd slap him with the show cause penalty.

So the question remains: How long will Tennessee be willing to go with an interim coach? Especially if the NCAA also penalizes Tony Jones and the current assistants… who were also named in the letter of allegations?

If the NCAA hands down anything more than a 1-year suspension, it would be tough — you would think — for UT to stand by Pearl.

But you never know. Either way, the 2-year show cause bans the NCAA has handed out for unethical conduct in the past still apply in terms of providing a blueprint for just how tough they may stand to hit Pearl. It doesn't have to be a "show cause" to earn 2 years off.

Thanks for reading,
John

Sadly, the Tennessee AD and Brent Hubbs is also reporting this nonsense — that a show-cause order would not "apply" to Tennessee, under the ludicrous theory that a show-cause order only applies to schools other than the one the coach committed the violations for. It warrants it's own article.

It's funny, I don't think I've ever fired off an ugly, insulting email to a person I've never met or had any correspondance with. I guess I just don't belong on this here internet.

If the NCAA hands Pearl a two-year suspension, the odds of Tennessee retaining him would be infinitesimally small. So UT would be forced to fire Pearl and then the NCAA would hit him with the show cause ban. Sorry I didn't write a couple of extra lines to spell that one out for you.

But let's see, I can go by the rulebook, past NCAA history (or even just put my trust in ESPN and SI columnists and their teams of editors, for that matter)… or I can go by what someone who refers to himself as "Nashville Dawg Fan" says in a smart aleck anonymous comment he left in a box that I provided for him.

I think I'll stick with what I wrote about the show cause penalty. If the NCAA wants Pearl out, it can suspend him for as long as it likes and force Tennessee's hand. Then comes the show cause penalty.

As always, thanks for reading,
John

Not sure how Pearl pegged me as a clown. In fact, I remember someone taking a column I wrote about his team to him — a piece Vol fans were beating me up pretty good over (shock) — and he said the article was dead-on accurate on a Knoxville radio station. Had to do with why his team took a nosedive to end the 07-08 season.

But back to your actual quotes:

"So the father thinks that is why he called. He has nothing to back it up other than he 'thinks' that is why he called. Its in the report, but, why on earth would you report the facts."

First, that's why we wrote the word "apparent" into the story. Second, we included every fact you just complained about.

Thanks for reading, though,
John

The exception was a Michigan grad assistant who had left the school and gotten out of coaching before the NCAA could throw the book at him.

It's in the O'Neil piece we linked to.

Thanks for reading,
John

Just to put your comments in perspective…

Nick Saban was photographed talking to Barry Sanders Jr. in his high school. Sanders' back was to the cell phone that snapped the picture. To my knowledge, Saban has not posed for photos with recruits during non-contact periods.

Saban's act might still be a secondary violation. Tennessee's would have been a secondary violation, too… had UT reported it and had Pearl not just made an apology for additional rules violations four days earlier.

I'm not saying Pearl should be hanged for violating the bump rule, but his situation and Saban's situation are very different.

Thanks for reading,
John

Thanks