Sorry, but that sounds a bit too conspiratorial for me. Hamilton did not want to fire Pearl. It means the end for him — likely — as well. UT was tipped to the seriousness of the penalties — though they should have seen the writing on the wall in September — and had to choose the lesser of two evils.

This had nothing to do with donations and cash. I can guarantee you their season tickets sales for basketball are about to drop rapidly.

John

I'd like to know and I guess I never will what harsh penalties we would receive had they kept their word. And if they kept Pearl, and appealed and just gone through the process how badly it really would have hurt the program.

I think your story is dead on, and I do not see any sensationalism. I am a huge UT fan, but the fact is (as you have so often pointed out), Pearl committed a small violation, then panicked & lied about it to the NCAA. As much as I would have liked to see Pearl stay at Tennessee, if he had it would have turned ugly and the national perception of UT would have sunk even lower. Your earlier analogy of having to amputate a leg to save the life is accurate. There is going to be a lot of phantom pain, but the root cause is the mistake Pearl made when he chose to be other than truthful to the NCAA, not that Hamilton hired Pearl in the first place. (That is nothing more thatn 20/20 hindsight). The majority of Vol fans who choose to call in to talk shows or post on GoVolsXtra.com are angry, but in my opinion they are looking for a convenient scape goat and Hamilton & Cheek are the most convenient targets.

I agree that the Tennessee administration mishandled this situation very badly. I think they were in a bad situation no matter what decisions were made in this case.

I know fans are disappointed and/or angry about the firing of Bruce Pearl. I am irritated with fans who I keep hearing and reading comments of that say that Tennessee basketball is now about to become irrelevant because he is not the coach. It is hard to predict what we will come of the future of the program with him there or not. Fans have every right to be upset of his firing, I am, but don't give up on basketball because he is gone. Vols fan should be support the school, the players and the coaches regardless.

I hope Bruce Pearl gets another chance to prove himself in the future.

I agree that Tennessee totally screwed up — and I've written this — by saying so loudly, "We stand by Bruce." But the fact is, they tried to stand by him when in most cases the coach gets fired. I'm not saying they're not PR nightmares or nitwits, I'm saying it's not fair to say they didn't stand by him. They tried to. And that's why they got blasted in the national press for 6 months.

As for the bump, Tennessee has reason to believe the NCAA was going to crush them for keeping Pearl. The fact that the NCAA called a bump a major violation showed exactly what they think of a coach who lied to them and attempted a cover-up. That's what caused UT to reverse field.

And folks can beat them up for reversing field. They should have known in September that they would be crushed for trying to keep a coach who lied to the NCAA — that doesn't happen. But you can't fault them for not standing by Pearl. They tried. More than most.

John

There are plenty of folks that are smart enough to know the University would keep this guy if that was a viable option. There are also plenty who love Pearl but and disappointed but are hardly “outraged” over the inevitable.

John you have done well on this story up to this point. You have been getting some very quick updates of timely information from a quality source. Why fall back into Perez Hilton mode and screw it up with this sensationalist garbage?

Agreed. Tennessee blew this thing in September. Handled the whole thing from start to finish poorly.

John