SEC Suspends Pearl for Eight League Games
The Southeastern Conference announced that Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl will be suspended for the team’s first eight league games because of admitted NCAA recruiting violations.
“I have been a very public advocate for playing by the rules,” Pearl said Friday. “When you don’t play by the rules, these are the things that can happen. So while these penalties that we’ve self-imposed and now the commissioner’s imposing are unprecedentedly strong, it sets a very high standard and a high standard that I agreed to.”
In September, Tennessee cut Pearl’s salary by $1.5 million over five years and told him he couldn’t recruit off campus for a year.
Pearl must sit beginning with the Jan. 11 game at Arkansas through the Feb. 5 home game with Alabama.