Tennessee Settled Title IX Lawsuit for $2.48 Million, Butch Jones Will Not Be Deposed Over Drae Bowles' Allegations

The University of Tennessee has settled the Title IX lawsuit brought by eight women over allegations about how the University handled sexual assault investigations involving athletes, primarily football players.

Under the terms of the agreement, the university is not admitting “guilt, negligence or unlawful acts.” Tennessee avoids costly discovery (in potentially more ways beyond the price tag estimated by officials at over $5 million) and settles a case that would have taken a lot to defend. Head football coach Butch Jones and athletics director Dave Hart, along with other key University figures, avoid adversarial depositions under oath.

Back in May, I wondered when we would hear more about the allegations made against Butch Jones by former player Drae Bowles, wherein Bowles alleged Jones called him a traitor to the team for helping a sexual assault victim. Jones maintained his innocence from those claims, though phone records do confirm at least the existence of multiple calls to Bowles on the day in question. Jones also said, “we’re letting the investigation take care of itself.” It has, at least in terms of a lawsuit, without that question being resolved.

According to the Tennessean, the settlement does include the provision that school officials agreed to the appointment of a special independent commission to review the response to sexual assaults at UT. It was an independent investigation at Baylor that led to the reports in May.

One of the other terms of settlement is that the University agreed not to give out a handpicked list of local attorneys to accused athletes and instead refer them to the local bar association. Jones had contact with the local police before they had even questioned the two athletes, A.J. Johnson and Mike Williams, who were kicked off the team in the aftermath of the same incident where Drae Bowles was involved, and he also had phone contact with an attorney who represented them on the first day that the allegations emerged.

[photo via Getty Images]