I found this part interesting: the school got tougher on academics and discipline in the wake of the Linda Bensel-Meyers scandal at the dawn of the new millennium.

I predicted that particular scandal after I did a session at the SEC meeting in Birmingham for academic advisors in 1998. Advisors from every other SEC school were extremely interested in what I had to say about how to provide effective support for student-athletes who were struggling academically.

The Tennessee advisors stood out, though. They were not only completely uninterested, they were downright obnoxious about not needing my advice. Knowing how challenging their jobs could be if they were doing them right, I became convinced that they were very likely doing them wrong. Sure enough, they were doing their jobs wrong, and it caused a heap of problems for them. The shortcuts they were taking came under Doug Dickey, so when Fulmer reminisces about the good old days, the days he's talking about weren't really all that good.==============================

Perhaps we should petition the SEC to pass a new rule to the effect that no program that is committing academic fraud is allowed to win the conference...then follow that up with a motion to retroactively strip Tennessee's 1998 SEC title.

It seems only fair.