Auburn head basketball coach Bruce Pearl arrived at Auburn after a controversial exit from Knoxville. Tennessee fired Pearl for hosting a BBQ at his house with recruits that he knew was a recruiting violation.
In the age of NIL, getting in trouble for that is borderline laughable.
Still, that violation from a different era has scarred the hearts and minds of many; be it fans or, especially, the pundits.
Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde, one of the top voices in sports media, grouped Pearl in with a, let's say troublesome, bunch.
"In a cultural fit for the SEC, they didn’t go out and get a bunch of choir boys," Forde wrote.
"Pearl was hired at Auburn while still serving a three-year NCAA show-cause penalty for lying about violations to investigators while he was the coach at Tennessee. Oats had a player charged with murder in 2023 and refused to sideline other players who were at the scene—most notably star Brandon Miller. The Ole Miss Rebels and Mississippi State Bulldogs hired coaches Chris Beard and Chris Jans, respectively, who had previously lost jobs for problematic interactions with women. Florida coach Todd Golden navigated a very public and awkward Title IX investigation which last month failed to find that he committed any violations."
Read that again. One of these things is not like the others.
Pearl is outspoken about his political views, and he often goes against what university presidents and the media support. That has made him somewhat of a villain in the college basketball world. Many rejoiced when Yale upset Auburn during the 2024 March Madness Round of 64.
But including Pearl in a group with those SEC coaches is a stretch. Regulations made what Pearl did a bad thing. A BBQ doesn't compare to the things Nate Oats, Chris Beard, and Chris Jans did, or what Todd Golden was accused of.