Former Tennessee basketball coach Donnie Tyndall responded to the NCAA imposing a 10-year show-cause on him Friday afternoon in a statement obtained by Rocky Top Insider.
“I am stunned and extremely disappointed by the NCAA Committee on Infractions’ report stating that I directed academic fraud in Southern Miss’ men’s basketball program. From the beginning of the case, I have accepted responsibility for the violations that occurred when I was head coach, but I absolutely reject that the “totality of the information” showed that I participated in the academic misconduct, as claimed by the Committee. I did not personally direct or participate in academic misconduct.
“In over fifty investigative interviews with more than forty people, only a single person claimed I was personally involved – and that person has previously lied to the NCAA twice and then cut a deal for full NCAA immunity based on changing his story to blame me. In the thousands of pages of records reviewed in the case, not a single one shows me performing or directing any student-athletes’ academic work. The circumstantial evidence claimed by the Committee to supposedly demonstrate my personal involvement in the academic violations has been contradicted by multiple interviewed witnesses as well as the results of lie-detector tests I took.
“I look forward to appealing this ruling that is totally unfair because it is unsupported by the overwhelming information in the case and definitely not based on the type of credible evidence that the NCAA rules say is supposed to be required to find a violations.”
Here’s the full story on the NCAA’s decision.
