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University of Tennessee
Well, here's proof that the Tarnished 20 will actually reward good behavior on the part of group of footballers/coaches and/or fans. Enter Tennessee - but don't get your hopes up Vol fans. You may have squeezed by Vanderbilt, but you won't squiggle your way out of this year's Tarnished Twenty. Threatening the life of a professor over a football scandal pretty much ensures your place among the Top Ten, anyway you put it. However, a recent revelation has shown that (gasp) UT's football graduation rate has risen to 65%, a full 57% increase from the previous year's class and well above the national average of 48% among Division I football programs. So kudos to the Vols for cleaning up what appeared to be a messy situation at the beginning of the season.
In the rocky fall, UT had been rocky at best and shady by most comparisons. While it should be noted that the NCAA exonerated the University of any wrongdoing, most of Tennessee's on the field success was overshadowed by the specter of a university professor who claimed that tutors had done schoolwork for at least five football players on the 1995 squad. One of the reasons UT got such a high mark from the Tarnished Twenty was the outpouring of support from Tennessee fans for the whistle-blowing professor. Yes, the "Volunteer State" really lived up to its billing as the troubled teacher received numerous death threats for making the claim. As a result, the FBI was called in to head up the investigation and provide protection.
It's not clear if coach Phil Fullmer made anyone run stadium steps for such behavior, obviously a time-tested method in the South… However as if all this wasn't enough, star tailback recruit Onterrio Smith, was dismissed from the team after he allegedly struck the mother of his 2-year old daughter.
Now, while loyal Volunteers might cry foul given the dismissal, a further search reveals that Tennessee's star 17-member recruiting class of 1999, of which Smith was a member, has been decimated by departures. In fact, of those 17 players, only seven had landed on the two-depth chart as of summer. Peyton Manning, the epitome of class, dedication, intelligence, and the like--these boys don't appear to be. But they seem to be getting better. And we here at FindLaw's Tarnished 20 reward progress.
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