A year after the State of Tennessee and Commonwealth of Virginia first brought their lawsuit against the NCAA, the two sides reached a settlement on Friday.
“We’ve been fighting hard to protect Tennessee student-athletes,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement. “Last year, we blocked the NCAA’s unlawful enforcement against Tennessee students and schools, and now this settlement in principle lays the groundwork for a permanent solution.”
The lawsuit came after the NCAA launched an investigation into Tennessee for using its NIL collective to negotiate deals with prospective student athletes. Despite the NCAA having not previously outlined rules for NIL negotiations, the college athletics governing body claimed the practice done by Tennessee and a number of other institution was illegal.
The NCAA’s investigation included multiple Tennessee sports but revolved around the Vols’ recruitment of Nico Iamaleava and the quarterbacks usage of a private plane funded by boosters before he began his college career.
After the investigation began, Tennessee Director of Athletics Danny White and Chancellor Donde Plowman responded to the NCAA with strong statement of disagreement before the State of Tennessee and Commonwealth of Virginia brought the lawsuit against the NCAA.
Tennessee and Virginia won a preliminary injunction last February which kept the NCAA from enforcing its new NIL rules that disallowed student athletes to negotiate deals with collectives.
The settlement that the two sides agreed to on Friday backs the injunction and removes any possibility of the NCAA enforcing its previously stated rules.
Plowman, White and Tennessee made a decision to fight back strongly against the NCAA’s investigation and that decision proved to be quite successful.