NCAA begins hearing on Tennessee infractions case

Former Tennessee coaches Bruce Pearl and Lane Kiffin finally got to explain themselves in front of the NCAA. All they can do now is wait to see if it did good. Kiffin spent more than four hours answering questions in front of the infractions committee Saturday, then was followed by Pearl, who spent nearly five hours in front of the committee. School officials are hoping the daylong closed-door hearing marks the beginning of the end of a 22-month investigation that rocked the Volunteers’ football and men’s basketball programs and tarnished Tennessee’s reputation.

“The hardest part is just being here,” Pearl said. “This was not something I was looking forward to.” The committee is expected to make a ruling within eight to 12 weeks. That’s when the Volunteers’ will learn their punishment. Tennessee faces a dozen major rules violations in the two high-profile sports including accusations that both coaches committed recruiting infractions and that both also failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within those programs.

Pearl, the former Volunteers men’s basketball coach, also was charged with unethical conduct after misleading NCAA investigators during an interview last June when he was asked about hosting high school juniors at a cookout at his house on Sept. 20, 2008 and phoning John Craft, father of recruit Aaron Craft, in an effort to influence Craft’s statement to investigators about the cookout.

Sometime in August or September, the Volunteers should learn their fate. “It’s not over because we’ve got to wait 45 or 60 days,” Pearl said. As for Pearl, who wore an orange and white tie and orange suspenders to the hearing, there was no sense of relief.

“Not really because we paid a very heavy price, all of us here have—my staff and the University of Tennessee,” he said. “So there’s not much relief.”