What were the Tennessee football sanctions? Did HC Lane Kiffin respond to the questions in the 2023 SEC Media days?

The Tennessee football team has officially been sanctioned for their violations. The NCAA announced that the Volunteers had committed “hundreds” of violations in a case that it labeled “one of the worst the COI has seen.”

According to the report, former head coach Jeremy Pruitt, personally paid recruits and their families. Along with Pruitt, several former assistant coaches were also involved in paying recruits.

After the investigation, the NCAA announced that Tennessee's football program must vacate all 11 wins from 2019 and 2020, be fined $8 million, and be placed on five years of probation, which includes the total reduction of 28 scholarships.

As well as losing scholarships, Tennessee will lose 36 official visits over the course of probation, and at least four per season. The Volunteers will have to select 10 regular season games during which they cannot host official visits, including four SEC games.

However, the Volunteers did avoid a postseason ban which was a big sigh of relief for Tennessee's football program.

"You don't know until today what it's actually going to be," head coach Josh Heupel told ESPN. "It's hugely important that our players were protected and the future players were protected as well. I'm really excited about the outcome."

Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin responds to the Tennessee football sanctions

Lane Kiffin takes jab at Tennessee

At the SEC media day, Lane Kiffin was asked about the sanctions and punishment handed down to Tennessee. Although Kiffin wasn't going to talk about it, he did take aim at the Volunteers for not getting a bowl ban.

"I got a lot of thoughts on that case and the case at USC and the case at Tennessee and the penalties and all that," Kiffin said. "I'm not really going to get into that. We're here to talk about the Ole Miss team. You know, happy for Coach (Josh) Heupel. I read where he was ecstatic about the penalties and the $8 million fine. So that kind of probably tells you about how severe the penalties are in their eyes. I'm happy for them that they don't have to go through what we went through. So good for them."

Of course, when Lane Kiffin became USC's head coach in 2010, after leaving Tennessee, the school just started a two-year bowl ban and significant scholarship restrictions after an investigation into Reggie Bush receiving financial benefits while he was at the school.

Ultimately, from Kiffin's comments, it doesn't seem like he thinks Tennessee's punishments are harsh enough compared to what USC had to deal with.